


We Won't Let This Be the End

by AliceMarie



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Corruption, Darkscape, M/M, Magic, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2020-12-16 14:29:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 53,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21037745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceMarie/pseuds/AliceMarie
Summary: It all started with this reoccurring dream. Virgil knew that something was going to go wrong. He just chose to to ignore it and hope that it wouldn't come true (which was very uncharacteristic of him). He needed to protect Thomas and the other sides, whatever the cost. Soon, everything is changing. Imagination starts to corrupt and panic starts to  rise among the people and creatures of Thomas' mind. With the appearance of old acquaintances as well as the disappearance of others, the sides confront Virgil to figure out what he knows. They end up outside the one place Virgil never thought he'd step foot in again, The Darkscape Manor. Will the sides be able to figure out whats going on or will this be the end?(Sorry not good with summaries)





	1. Part 1: Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This will be the first fic that I post here on AO3. I do have an account on Wattpad where I have the same story posted, once this story catches up to it on the other website they will both update at the same time.
> 
> You can skip this note at the beginning if you wish. This is just general information about the story.
> 
> Throughout the story you may find ideas or concepts that are familiar or similar to other stories and I want to give a little shout out to all the authors that have helped me along with ideas. I tried to tweak them so they weren't someone else's exact idea and that they fit better with what I was going with. I am NOT trying to steal or copy anyone's ideas, I just used them as inspiration.  
Also, some of the characters may seem a little OC. I am basing this off my own interpretations from the sandersides videos as well as what I have seen or liked in other fanfics. For example, Virgil. From the videos Virgil isn't completely closed off all the time, he can be quite sassy when he wants to be. Logan can be another example as well as to the fact that though he lacks a lot of emotion, he isn't completely devoid of all emotions. Please keep these things in mind.  
There will parts of the story where there will be a "trigger"warning. Many times this will be due to Virgil having a panic attack (I've thankfully never had one myself so I'm basing this off of other fics). Later on I plan to have more things that could possibly trigger people as well. I will try my best to put a trigger warning at the beginning of every chapter where there could be a possible trigger.
> 
> There WILL be LAMP within this fic. It is planned to happen farther down the road as the story gets established.

The walls of the darkscape manor dripped with a disturbing black substance. A chilling wind blew through the twisting maze of hallways as Virgil silently made his way through them. Though the mansion was filled with winding tunnels, Virgil knew each of them like the back of his hand… Or so he thought. He wasn’t sure how he ended up in these horrid halls again after all this time, but here he was working his way through hallways he had never seen before (and he was pretty sure had never existed before). Virgil’s mind had no idea where he was going, but his feet did so he allowed them to take him where they deemed he needed to go. Even though he felt he was supposed to be here, each step still filled his heart with a feeling of dread. As Virgil’s feet led the way, he decided he would occupy his mind by looking at the paintings that were hanging along the dripping walls. Many of them were of dreary landscapes or scenes of torture. Many of these paintings were familiar to him as he remembered them from his time within the manor, it was when he got to the split in the corridor that an unfamiliar painting made its appearance.

  
The painting Virgil came upon gave off a comforting aura much like the figure within the painting did. The figure within the painting wore a pale blue, hooded robe. Large wings spread out from the figures back and they were holding out their hands towards him. Hanging around the figure’s wrists were silver bands. Virgil couldn’t see the figures face but he could see a kind smile peeking out from under their hood. The longer Virgil looked at the painting the more he felt like he knew the figure, but his time was cut short as his feet decided it was time to move on. He turned to the left and continued walking down another hallway, only sparing another quick glance at the painting before it disappeared from sight.

  
After some more walking Virgil came to another split in the hallway, and much like the last one, another painting was hanging on the wall. The figure within this painting was wearing a navy blue, hooded robe. One of the figure’s hands was raised into the air as the other held a worn looking book. Surrounding the figure were glowing markings, though they were blurred, Virgil could’ve sworn that they looked like words. The aura radiating from this painting calmed his nerves the more he looked. Once again he had this feeling like he should know the face of the figure hidden underneath the hood. He wasn’t given enough time to ponder this as once again his feet carried him away, to the right this time.

  
After a while Virgil came across yet another crossroad and another painting. In this painting the figure wore a glittering red, hooded robe. In the figure’s hands was a beautiful, shining sword. The hilt was gold and had a red rose carved into it. Behind them was a large gold and red dragon. Its marvelous wings stretched out wide as it was breathing fire into the sky. Standing next to this painting made Virgil feel safe. Absentmindedly, Virgil reached out and placed his hand over the figure’s hands as if they would reach out and hold his back. Much to his (surprising) disappointment, all Virgil got was the feeling of a warm canvas under his palm. Once again Virgil’s time staring at the painting was cut short as his feet decided that it was once again time to move on. Taking another right turn down the corridor, the farther away Virgil got from the painting the more alone Virgil started to feel.

  
After the last painting Virgil once again started down another long, dark hallway. The only difference between this one and the last three was that this one didn’t seem to end.The longer he walked, the more narrow the hallway seemed to get, and the more anxious he became. The substance on the walls seemed to ooze even worse than the others as it made puddles along the hallway floor. The smell was nauseating and caused him to start to feel dizzy (this was SO not helping him with his building panic). After what felt like hours of walking the hallway led to a doorway that opened up into a room. Unlike the rest of the hallways that dripped and unsettled Virgil, this room was different. It was large. The walls and ceiling looked to be made of black marble. The room itself felt cold and filled him with an almost suffocating feeling of dread.  
At first glance the room seemed to be completely empty but as Virgil started to look around, he discovered that he was wrong. On the wall to his right hung another one of those paintings, this painting though was torn to shreds. Among the pieces of the destroyed canvas he caught bits of yellow and what looked to be scales, but couldn’t tell anything further from that. A loud bang from behind startled Virgil causing him to quickly turn around. Another painting was laying in pieces on the floor behind him, this one with bits of green and black.

  
This was all getting to be too much for Virgil. Too many thoughts were running through his mind as he stared back and forth between the ruins of the two paintings. Virgil decided enough was enough and turned back towards the hallway so he could leave and get out of this haunted place. When he turned back towards the hallway, to his horror, the door was gone. Instead another painting hung in its place. This one was in one piece, unlike the other two in the room, and like the ones that he saw within the hallway this one had a figure in it as well. The figure within the painting wore a dark purple, hooded robe. Both of their hands were held out to the side, almost in a “balance” sort of stance. In the figures right hand was a golden sun, light shining out from it. In the figures left hand was a silver moon, a black substance (much like the ones of the manor’s walls) dripping from it onto the figure’s hand then down to the ground below. Above the figures head was a white, seven-pointed star. Virgil had thought the other paintings he’d seen up to this point were familiar, but this one topped all of them when it came to that tugging feeling. It kind of made him angry that he couldn’t place where he’d seen the figure before. Virgil made his way forward to place a hand on the painting when a sudden grinding noise happened directly behind him. Slowly, Virgil turned around to face the last wall.

  
Turning around, Virgil faced the last wall. Much like the other walls this one was no longer empty, now an archway existed where there hadn’t been one before. From where he stood, he couldn’t really see what was beyond the archway but that wasn’t where his attention remained. No, his attention was drawn to one last painting hanging above. This painting wasn’t in pieces. This painting held no mysterious or familiar figure. This painting was just a completely black canvas. It unnerved him to the point where he started shaking. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much but he figured that the answer to that question (unfortunately) was beyond the creepy archway.

  
Slowly Virgil started to take uneasy steps forward, each step seemed to echo loudly off the marble walls. He stepped up to the archway and looked through it, freezing on the spot. What he saw through the archway was nothing, absolutely nothing, he could just feel how empty the room felt. That’s it, Virgil was done. He had made up his mind and he was not going any further. As Virgil went to turn around and leave a strong force suddenly pushed him forward intothe darkness. Virgil quickly regained his composure and tried to get back through the archway, but it was gone. With the archway gone all that left Virgil with was the endless dark void. Virgil was shaking horribly at this point. His breathing was labored and the thick, smog like air wasn’t helping him at all. It was suffocating him. His nails were digging so badly into his arms that he was sure that if he didn’t have the bad habit of biting his nails they would have drawn blood at this point.

  
The emptiness was overwhelming. Virgil slowly sank to his knees as his hands moved from his arms to his hair. He was starting to go into a full blown panic attack. He tried to hold back a sob but it came out anyways. In the midst of his screaming thoughts and loud sobbing Virgil heard several pairs of footsteps heading his way. Virgil’s body was still shaking, but he managed to lift his head up to the direction of the footsteps. To the right he saw a pair of yellow eyes appear. To the left, a pair of green eyes. Who he saw in between the two sets of eyes immediately cause him to freeze in complete in utter terror. “No… It can’t be…” Virgil whispered, eyes wide. “No no no no no no no….”  
“Hello… old friend” came a completely dark and familiar voice.  
Virgil closed his eyes, trying his hardest to believe it wasn’t true. As the footsteps drew closer Virgil could only scream “NO!”


	2. Morning Breakfast

Virgil woke with a start, causing him to unfortunately fall off his bed and land uncomfortably with his back on the floor. He could still feel the horrible emptiness of the void in his body as he slowly tried to calm down his still erratic breathing. When he finally calmed down enough he looked up at the ceiling and just gave a long sigh, deciding he had no motivation to get up (like most mornings). Virgil would like to say that this was the first time this had happened, but this was now a daily occurrence. He’d go to bed at night, have that same stupid dream, wake up with his back on the floor, and wait for one of the other sides to come knocking on his door to let him know that breakfast was ready. He looked over at his clock to see what time it was to notice that it was 7:30, _That’s weird… Usually I’m awake a lot earlier than this._ Virgil looked back up at the ceiling and let his thoughts wander back to his dream from the night previous.

He had no idea what any of it meant. Why was he back in the darkscape manor? Who were the figures in the paintings hanging along the halls and why had he never noticed them before? What was with those two broken paintings? Why did the black canvas bother him so much? Virgil sighed audibly.  _ Maybe I should actually go and see Remy about this. Maybe he can give me some insight about what’s going on with these dreams. _ As Virgil was thinking, three consecutive knocks came from his door interrupting his thoughts,  _ Logan… Guess I should get up.  _

Shortly after Virgil got himself off the floor, he got himself dressed in his usual attire. He grabbed his headphones from his desk, placing them in their spot around his neck, and slowly made his way downstairs. As he turned the corner of the stairs he took in his surroundings. Like most mornings, Patton was just finishing up the final touches on breakfast which looked to be pancakes. He was humming to himself as he got the food situated on the table in between four sets of plates and silverware. Logan sat in his usual spot at the table in the dining room. He had a coffee in hand, casually sipping as he was engrossed with the book he was reading.  _ That’s  _ _ odd, usually Logan reads the paper with breakfast. Wonder why he’s reading a book today? _ Virgil quickly ended that train of thought as he noticed the absence of one of the sides, an obnoxious side at that. As if reading his mind, Logan spoke up “Roman is down in Imagination Village.” Virgil looked to Logan startled, “What?!”

Logan just sighed and placed his book down,”You were thinking about the absence of Roman were you not? You first made your daily observations about the locations of both Patton and I and then started looking around confused. I could only presume you were curious about the location of Roman.” 

Patton walked back into the dining room setting the last of the pancakes on the platter in the center of the table. Wiping his hands on his apron he looked up at Virgil, “Logan is right about where Roman is, kiddo! He had just come down the stairs when he was contacted, the voice sounded quite frantic and had asked him to hurry.” 

Patton took off his apron and hung it on its hook in the kitchen. He walked to the fridge and grabbed the milk out, pouring himself a glass. He looked up at Virgil, silently asking him if he wanted some milk or coffee. Virgil tilted his head towards the latter and made his way to his spot at the table. Patton brought over both of their drinks, handing Virgil his, and sat down at his spot as well. “Whatever the problem may be I’m sure Roman will be able to solve it!” Patton said with a clap of his hands, his bright, cheery smile never leaving his face. Virgil gave one last glance to Patton before starting to serve himself breakfast, “I guess. That’s what Princey does best…”

Shortly after the three sides settled down to start eating breakfast, Roman made his appearance. “Good Morning my fellow sides! I have returned.” He had his arms stretched wide and a smile on his face as he sauntered over to join the others at the breakfast table.

Patton was the first to respond to Roman, “Welcome back Roman! So what was happening in the village that they had to call you down so urgently?”at this Roman’s hands landed on his hips and his eyebrows furrowed “Nothing. Nothing was wrong at all” Was his reply. “Nothing? How could nothing be wrong?” Patton voiced, confusion lacing his words.

Roman looked back at the others, “I don’t know. I went down after receiving their call and everyone was running around frantically. I found someone who was more on the calmer side and he said that he had no idea why they were panicking. Apparently, no one knew, They were freaking out for no reason.”

“Freaking out for no reason?” Logan inquired after Roman’s little rant. Virgil’s eyes snapped up from his pancakes that he was focused on eating to see all the other sides staring at him. The minute they saw him looking, they all averted their eyes. Though normally this would cause him discomfort but at this moment it more pissed him off about the reason as to why they were staring at him. 

“I didn’t cause the panic!” he defended himself. “We weren’t implying you did kiddo” Patton started, “It was simply our natural reaction to Roman’s statement. As the embodiment of Thomas’ anxiety, you are the most common cause for panic and fear. It would only be natural for us to automatically assume it was you.” Logan continued on. “We meant no offence in our reaction.”

“Well I am offended.” Virgil responded. Standing up from the table, he quickly cleaned up his dishes. He re entered the dining room with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked at  the other sides. Patton is looking down in shame while both Roman and Logan are now staring at him, as if waiting for more of a response. 

Virgil sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Look, I know in the past causing panic was kind of my thing but I haven’t done that in years! Since joining you guys here in the mind palace and working with Thomas, I haven’t once thought about causing any problems.” Virgil looked at the other sides.

Logan looked to be taking into consideration what he was saying as the other two were looking at him. “Well if you didn’t start is who could’ve? People don’t just start worrying for no reason…” Roman questioned. Virgil gave him a pointed look, “ First, yes they can. Trust me. Secondly, did you ever consider that maybe Deceit or Remus could have had something to do with it?”. That caught the other sides attention. They all looked at each other.

“That could be a possibility as well. They both do have a tendency to spread lies and cause trouble.” Logan stated while slowly nodding to himself. “Speaking of those two” Roman added with a wave of his hand, “ I haven’t seen either of them in quite a while. Usually they pop in but neither have shown their faces recently.” All the sides looked at each other, expecting one of them to say that they indeed have seen Deceit or the Duke. They all knew that not seeing either of the two for long periods of time never ended well for them, or Thomas.

Virgil was getting tired of this conversation. He already had enough to think about with his dream and what that could mean. He didn’t want to overwhelm himself with thinking about Deceit, the Duke, or why people were panicking for no reason. If there is one thing that he has learned after all this time, was that thinking too much never ended well for him.

While the other sides sides were still conversing about possibilities for the village panic, Virgil decided it was a good time to make his exit. Right as he grabbed the handle of the door, he heard a voice from behind him “Virgil, may I inquire as to where you are going?”

Turning around, Virgil sees Logan standing behind him. Virgil exhales a breath as he responds to him. “I have some things I need to take care of. I won’t be gone long so you don’t need to worry.” Logan readjusts his glasses as he gives Virgil a look. Virgil knew that look. It was that look that told him Logan knew that something was up. Emotions may not be his forte, but Logan (after many years of all the side being together) had gotten pretty good at reading their body language and listening to verbal cues. It was almost as hard to hide something from him as it was to hide something from Patton. 

“If something is the matter, you know all of us are here to talk. All you have to do is ask.” Logan stated this as he gave Virgil one last look before returning to the table to join Patton and Roman. Virgil turned back to the door, shaking his head, before exiting the mind palace. Placing his headphones over his ears and starting his music, he walked off the porch and started making his way towards Imagination Village where he would hopefully be able to speak with Remy. 


	3. Imagination Village

The pathway from the mind palace to the other territories (Imagination, Daydream, and Knowledge) was nothing special. The pathway was simply a stone path that took you to where you wanted to go. Off to the sides were endless fields of flowers. Though one could wander off of it, it usually wouldn’t take long for it to turn the being back around onto the stone pathway again. The fields (one could say) were for wandering thoughts, they happen occasionally when one gets distracted but they eventually get back on track to their original destination.

Virgil glanced quickly at the surrounding fields before going back to staring down at the stone pathway he was walking along, his music was blaring in his ears. Though he usually got enjoyment from listening to his music, he was too far lost in his thoughts to really appreciate it. Virgil was thinking about both his dream as well as random panic the village had gone through. Both these things were out of the ordinary, could they have been a coincidence?  _ Nah, there’s no way that either of those things could of happened because of the other. _

Even though Virgil was spacing out along the path his eye did wander off to the side for a brief moment. At the side of the road was this large stone, it was the size of a basketball and had a huge crack in it. To anyone who saw it they would have probably thought it odd and out of place, but left it alone. Virgil knew better though, he knew why that rock was there and what its purpose was. 

As he passed the rock a shock of pain ran through his head causing him a moment of dizziness.  _ What was that!  _ Virgil thought in a quick moment of panic. He hurried his steps so that he could get further away from the rock.  _ I’ve walked past the rock hundreds of times and nothing like that has happened before… God, now I have a headache… Could this day get any worse? _

Virgil continued walking down the path and before he knew it, he could finally see the village as well as the aftermath of this morning’s apparent random panic. There was destruction everywhere. Houses were damaged, there was glass and trash all over the ground, Virgil could even see some places where it looked like there had been a fire. Virgil started to get this really off feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know what it was but he just knew that something was wrong. 

Eventually, after winding through the village streets, Virgil made it to Remy and Emile’s house.  _ Thank god!  _ Virgil thought with relief as he bounded (as fast as he could with his headache) up to their door. Taking a quick moment to recompose himself, Virgil knocked on the door. Emile appeared a few moments later with a confused look upon his face, “Virgil! What a surprise. How can I help you today?”

Taking a breath Virgil responded, “Well… I was actually wondering if Remy was about? I needed to ask him about something.” Virgil glanced behind Emile to see if Remy had popped up. Emile shook his head “Sorry Virgil. You actually just missed him. He left not too long ago to go on a Starbucks run with Thomas. Apparently, he’s been feeling rather off as of late.” Virgil’s eyebrows furrowed “Thomas has been off? What do you mean by off?”

“Nevermind that, I assume that if it was something that you needed to know he would have told you by now.” Emile stated.  _ Ouch, that stings a little _ Virgil thought slightly dismayed. Though he was pretty sure that Emile didn’t mean it as a jab, it still bothered him a little. “Let’s get back to you.” Emile continued, “Remy may not be here but I am, anything I can help  _ you with?”  _

Virgil kind of shrunk back. Emile was very similar to Patton in how he was able to get others to speak to him about how they were feeling or to talk about what was going on inside  their head. Between his pounding headache and mess of thoughts, that really wasn’t something Virgil wanted to do right now. “Um… No thanks. It’s no big deal, I’m just gonna... head back.” Virgil quickly turned around and bolted down the stairs, ignoring whatever else Emile said as he quickly made his way back to the mind palace.

As Virgil headed away from the house and through the village it seemed that the pounding in his head was only getting worse. Each step reverberating through his skull as he made his way back. He hardly noticed that the weather had changed, the sun no longer shining, gray clouds filled the sky. He was so focused on not letting his growing dizziness get the better of him that he hardly realized that he finally had made it back to the mind palace.

The pounding in Virgil’s head was too much, all he wanted to do was to go to his room and pray that it went away fast. He bounded up the porch steps and through the front door. Speeding through the living room Virgil made his way up the stairs, he could’ve sworn he had heard someone call out to him but at this point he didn’t care. 

After making his way through the hallway Virgil finally saw the door to his bedroom. He made his way to the door and he barely had enough energy to open it, get inside, close and lock the door, before black dots filled his vision and he collapsed onto his bedroom floor.


	4. The Archives

After seeing that Virgil didn’t want to talk, Logan decided that it was better that he returned to the table to resume breakfast with Roman and Patton. He knew how essential eating a balanced meal was and even though he was concerned for the well being of the darker side, there was nothing he could do.

Logan returned to his seat quietly, grabbing his cup of coffee and taking a sip. He glanced up and saw worry written on the other two faces in front of him. “Did we really upset him that much?” Patton asked, you could see how much it distressed him to think that it might of been partially his fault that Virgil was upset. 

“I don’t believe that it is entirely our fault that Virgil seems upset.” Logan stated while looking at Patton. “What do you mean?” Patton asked looking up from his plate where he was pushing around food. Roman at the same time gave Logan a curious look as well.

“Well… I have noticed that the past couple days Virgil has seemed off. He has seemed unfocused and distracted by something.” Logan stated while looking between both Roman and Patton. “I’ve noticed the Emo Nightmare has been rather off as well. His temper seems to be shorter too. Patton do you know what’s been going on?” Roman finished his statement with a question, glancing towards Patton.

Patton gave a quick shake of his head, glancing back down “Sorry kiddos, I haven’t heard anything from Virgil directly. He’s hardly spent any time downstairs as of late.” Logan gave Patton a sympathetic glance, “Whatever it is that seems to be bothering Virgil there is  nothing that we can do until he tells us. He usually does at some point whether he needs help or has resolved the issue on his own. All we can do is be patient with him and wait.”

Both Patton and Roman gave a nod in agreement to what Logan had said. It was true, Virgil had gotten a lot better over the years about asking the three of them for help if he needed it and even if he didn’t need help, he would usually tell the other sides about the situation afterwards. It had taken a lot of time and trust building to get to this point and there was no need to do anything that might disrupt it now. “Well if that’s all settled for the time being, how about we continue on with breakfast?”

The three remaining sides finished up breakfast in an unusual silence, each lost in their own thoughts (mostly about their friend as well as about recent events). When he was finished, Logan helped Roman clean up and do the dishes after breakfast. Afterwards, Logan gave his fellow sides a quick goodbye as he gathered up the book he was reading and headed up to his room. 

Logan’s room wasn’t as extravagant as Roman’s or as homey as Patton’s, but it was adequate for what Logan needed it for. It was a simple room. On one wall was floor to ceiling bookshelf. On another wall was his work desk and a painting that hid his portal to the archives of the Knowledge territory (Roman had a portal to the Daydream territory in his room). On the last wall that didn’t have the door, was Logan’s bed along with two nightstands on either side and a large window. 

With the new information that he had obtained throughout their morning meal, Logan had decided that today would be a good day to go to the archives. Walking into his room he quietly gathered up the materials that he needed and walked to the lone painting that was hanging on the wall next to his desk. Pressing the button that sat next to it, the painting slid to the side to reveal the portal. An ingenious design made by Logan himself, with one last check that he had everything, he stepped through the portal and into the archives.

The archives of the Knowledge territory was quite an astonishing place. The purpose of the archives is to hold all knowledge and memories of the host (though there were sections that kept records of all the sides including Light, Dark, and Neutral). Depending on how much logic and knowledge played into a person’s life, affected the appearance of the archives. In the case of the archives of Thomas, it took the place of a library. 

With an ever changing and growing assortment of books (books that contain anything from knowledge to memories) the archives had kind of a homey feel to it. Even though Logan was the main side to spend time within the archives, the other sides had made their mark on the appearance. From the decor from Roman, to the furniture and fireplace from Patton, and even the blankets and pillows from Virgil (which surprised the sides when he suggested them), the archives felt warm and inviting.

Logan stopped and gave a small smile as he reminisced about the times they have had in the archives. Sometimes he would walk through the archives and find one of the other sides reading. Roman and Patton enjoyed lounging around on the couches in the common space and Virgil could be found in one of the many nooks spread throughout the archives. 

Logan would never admit it out loud to the other sides (in fear of losing his hearing due to Patton’s squealing) but his favorite times were those late calm nights where they would all be in the archives together. Roman would be sitting in “his” armchair relaying one of his grandiose  adventures. Virgil would be curled up in one of the many fluffy blankets on the floor near the fireplace, occasionally interjecting Roman’s stories and causing their usual playful banter to occur. Logan would sit on the couch with a forgotten book on the coffee table next to him. Patton would curl up with a blanket on the couch next to Logan, on his face would be a contented smile. The four of them have certainly come a long way since their first encounter with each other.

Shaking his head, Logan finally started making his way through the archives to his “office” which was really just one of the many nooks on the second floor of the archive. In the nook was an armchair as well as a desk. Littered across the desk were books and notebooks covering a myriad of different topics that Logan was looking. Hanging up along the wall as well as written on a whiteboard that Logan had brought from the mind palace, were his notes about the current events.

Logan had been keeping track of everything that has been going on that has been off as of late. Though he was usually pretty organized in his note taking and research, a lot of his notes were scattered around because there really wasn’t any organization to any of it. There were notes of different creatures and characters within the Imaginary that were acting out. Roman had mentioned that there were things about the Daydream territory that seemed  _ “Off.. Just, off. I don’t know what it is but the area just feels… different. The creatures seem on edge” _ . 

Setting his material down, Logan grabbed a marker and quickly started adding to his list of occurrences. He made sure he added every detail that Roman had given about the random panic that swept through Imagination Village. Next, Logan added a quick side note about the fact that none of the sides had seen either Deceit or the Duke in quite some time. 

Logan thought about adding a note about Virgil’s recent odd behavior, but decided against it. Not because he didn’t think that it was relevant information, but because if Virgil at some point wandered into Logan's space and saw his name written with all the other information, Logan knew how much it would upset him. He would automatically jump to the conclusion that Logan thought he was in some part to blame. Logan was pretty sure he wasn’t (he knew how much Virgil cared about Thomas). Still, he wouldn’t take the chance in destroying the trust they had built. He would just keep that information duly noted in his head.

Looking at all the information that he’s collected and well as taking into account all the research that he’s done up to this point, Logan started to get frustrated. He liked knowing how things work, and that was exactly what he WASN’T figuring out. What was causing everything to happen? 

Logan knew he probably shouldn’t worry about any of this. It was probably just a faze that the Mindscape was going through. Still…. It was odd for so many things to be off at once. Was there a connection between anything? Was there something going on that he wasn’t aware of? Did he as well as the other sides have a need to be worried? So many questions and so many dead ends. There weren’t any answers to be found anywhere that he looked.

_ Damn… I have a headache now. Guess I was thinking too hard and too much. Patton is going to get me for this.  _ Logan made his way over to his armchair and sat down gingerly, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. He felt bad. He knew that if he got a headache then Thomas would most likely end up with one soon too.  _ Apologies, Thomas.  _ Logan left his eyes  closed as he took a much needed mental break, not noticing an old book had just appeared on his desk out of nowhere.


	5. Somethings Wrong

It had been a short while after Logan had left. Patton and Roman were lounging around in the living room of the mind palace. Roman had just finished retelling one of his favorite adventures to Patton when through the corner of his eye he notices behind the curtain, the sky was now gray verses sunny as it was earlier during the morning.

Roman walked towards the window and gently pulled back the curtain. Looking outside it was indeed cloudy as well as it appeared that a light rain had started.  _ Well that’s odd. I was pretty sure it was sunny just a short while ago. _ It worried Roman a little bit. The weather of the mindscape usually reflects the emotions of the host (though the sides play a part in this as well). He didn’t sense anything wrong with Thomas so that must mean that something was wrong with one of them. Frowning, Roman turns to Patton “What do you think is going on?”. 

Patton glances out the window and a look mirroring his own appears. Patton walks up and stands by Roman, he takes a further look out the window at the mindscape around their home. “I have no idea. It worries me though. It takes quite a shift in emotion nowadays for the weather in the mindscape to change. Do you think it could be…”

Just as Patton was about to take a guess at what was causing the weather change, a sharp pain ran through both of their heads. It took a moment for both sides to recover but when they did, they both looked at each other, “Logan…”. Concern was written all over both of their faces. They knew that the pain that ran through their heads was from Thomas having a headache. Roman and Patton didn’t have to worry about the residual effects of the headache, but Logan did. 

“Do you think Logan may have caused the headache or weather change” Roman questions Patton. Patton shook his head, “He might of caused the headache, but I don’t think that he is the sole cause of the weather… I really don’t know what’s going on.” The two sides looked at each other. Roman rested his hands on his hips, “Maybe one of us should go check on Logan. Make sure he’s alright?” Patton nodded in response, “I’ll go, my guess is he went to the archives. Why don’t you stay here and wait for Virgil to come back? He should be back soon with the weather how it is.” 

Roman agreed and Patton left shortly afterwards. After Patton had left to go check on Logan, Roman decided to return to the living room and sit down to relax with a good Disney movie. He was curled up on one of the couches in the middle of watching  _ Aladdin  _ when suddenly a large boom of thunder sounded outside. It startled him, causing him to jump off the couch swing around to face the door, drawing his katana out in the process. 

Roman was breathing hard, his guard was up. After realizing that there wasn’t any threat besides the storm, he let out a breathy laugh.  _ This weather is really getting to me… I can’t even think of the last time the mindscape had a thunderstorm. _

Another large boom sounded, only this time it was accompanied with Virgil practically running into the palace. Roman called out to Virgil as he raced past, but with no success, as he continued with his pace to his room.

Roman stared at the stairs for a few moments after Virgil had ran up them.  _ What was that about! That was weird, even for him… I know what both Patton and Logan say about giving him his space… But this is really out of the ordinary, even for him…  _ After a few more moments of internal debate, Roman finally had come to the decision to head upstairs to go check on Virgil.

Heading down the hallway Roman started to get this weird feeling. The area surrounding both Logan and Virgil’s rooms felt off and it was making him feel uncomfortable and worried. Visually, there wasn’t anything wrong. Nothing out of place, but there was still something wrong. Roman eventually realized he had stopped, taking a breath, he tried to shake the feeling off as he continued heading down the hallway. 

When he reached Virgil’s door, Roman was hesitant to knock. Slowly he raised his hand and just as he had convinced himself to knock on the door, he felt the familiar tug from Thomas summoning him. _ I wonder what Thomas could need?  _ Turning away from the door, he allowed himself to rise up into the real world.

Roman appeared shortly, followed by Patton. Both of the sides looked at Thomas, noticing the slightly distressed look on his face. Thomas looked between Roman and Patton, “Where are Logan and Virgil?”. Patton rubbed the back of his neck, “Logan is going to be out of commision for a little bit. He pushed himself a little too much and needs some rest.”

“Dr. Gloom is out as well.” Roman responded, staring down at his hand and wishing that he had had the opportunity to knock on his door. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with Virgil?”, now Patton had a look on his face almost identical to that of Thomas. 

Roman couldn’t decide on whether or not to tell both of them about what had taken place only moments before they were summoned. He decided to give a shortened version of what had happened in order not to cause further worry. “Nothing too serious, I’m guessing. He just came back to the mind palace in a rush and headed straight up to his room. He probably just needs some time to himself.”

Neither Patton nor Thomas seemed convinced with his answer, but they didn’t push the problem any further. 

Patton turned to face Thomas, though his questioning gaze lasted a few seconds longer on Roman. “So. What’s the matter kiddo? Why did you summon us?” Patton asked, Roman turned towards Thomas as well. Thomas’ face fell, “I have just been feeling a little off lately. I can’t think of anything going on that would cause me to feel this way, so I wanted to check in with you guys to see if everything was okay… ” He looked between the two present sides, hoping for some explanation.

Patton and Roman looked at each other. “Sorry, Thomas. As far as either of us know there isn’t anything wrong. Except maybe what’s going on with Logan and Virgil.” Patton starts to explain. Patton knew that he was possibly lying to Thomas, but making him more stressed or worried wasn’t going to help them at all. 

“You know that if there was anything wrong we would tell you, right?” Roman played off of Patton, he knew that he might of been playing a little dirty (using Thomas’ trust in them to their advantage) but he needed to try and help Thomas ease up a bit. “The best thing we can ask you to do is to try and keep going about things normally until we can figure anything out.” Patton added on, giving a quick, disapproving look to Roman. 

“Precisely, Thomas! We will keep you up to date on any discoveries that we may stumble upon.” Roman stated while posing in his usual, princely fashion. Both Roman and Patton had forced smiles on their faces, but it seemed to appease Thomas a little. “If you say everything is okay, then I’ll believe you. You promise that if you find anything you’ll tell me, right?”

“Promise” 

“Of Course, Thomas”

Patton and Roman give their farewells, promising to send Logan and Virgil when they are better, and sink back into the mindscape. Now it was just a matter of waiting till they could start figuring out what was going on.


	6. Nightmares of Destruction

_ Virgil looked around himself, it looked like he was standing in the Fields of Wandering Thoughts. Surrounding him on all sides were flowers of all sorts. The sun was shining overhead and a gentle breeze blew past him. He had no idea how he got here or what he was doing, but for a moment he felt calm... Only for a moment.  _

_ Suddenly, the area changed. What was once beautiful fields, was now a destroyed land. The ground was gray and the flowers were withered and dead. Virgil started to shake. This wasn’t supposed to happen.  _

_ All of a sudden a dark fog settled along the ground making it hard to see farther than maybe ten feet. Virgil spun around, trying to see if there was any possible way out, there wasn’t. Against his better judgement he decided that he needed to start walking. If he was where he thought he was, then eventually it should lead him back to the main path. If he can get to the path then he could get home to the others... He needed to get back to the others. _

_ After walking for what felt like hours, Virgil finally saw what looked to be the stone pathway. Exhaling a relieved breath, Virgil quickened his pace towards the path. The minute his foot hit the pathway, the fog lifted. _

_ Virgil fell to his knees. He hugged himself, tucking his head into his lap for a few moments while he regained his composure.  _

_ When he finally raised his head he was expecting to see sunshine, maybe the mind palace or Imagination village. What he raised his head to was much worse. Staring him in the face was the open entrance to the Dark Scape. The twisted trees glared at him while the harsh wind howled with sinister laughter.  _

_ His shaking had worsened as he started to try and calm his breathing. He whipped his head around looking at his surroundings. Along with the pathway to the Dark scape being visible, everything else was in ruins.  _

_ Virgil’s panic started to set in. He wanted to just curl in on himself right there, but then a sudden thought crossed his mind. The mind palace! He needed to get to the mind palace so that he could get the others.  _

_ He needed Patton’s calming voice, Logan’s sound logic, and Roman’s safe presence. He knew if he had them with him, they could figure this out together. Shakily, Virgil rose to his feet and turned himself towards the direction he was positive the mind palace was in, and ran. _

_ As he ran, Virgil tried to keep his eyes ahead rather than looking around him. He didn’t want or need to see what other destruction was happening. He kept his eyes ahead because that was the only thing keeping him focused. _

_ Virgil had finally made it over the last hill before the palace, and what he saw crushed him. Tears started to fall as he stared and what remained of his home. The mind palace was completely destroyed. Walls were torn down and the roof was almost completely caved in on the second floor. Shattered glass from the windows littered the ground reflecting the light from the fire slowly swallowing up what remained. _

_ Virgil ran towards the palace, he needed to get in there to make sure the other sides weren’t in there. Just as he was about to race up the steps of the porch, an explosion happened causing him to fly back away from the palace. _

_ His vision was blurry from both the impact from when his head hit the ground as well as with the tears that he could no longer control. He could see spots in his now ruined hoodie that had torn and cause scattered burns to cover his skin. Ash and debris covered the ground around him. Hope was lost. _

_ Virgil’s arms wrapped around himself as he cried in pain. He cried not due to any of his physical wounds, but because he lost everything that was important to him. He couldn’t protect his friends… He couldn’t protect Thomas. _

_ The dark fog from the fields started to surround the mind palace, but that was the last thing that Virgil was paying attention to. As he stared at was once his home, he saw something moving in the fire just beyond the broken doorway.  _

_ Stepping out of the smoke and fire came a creature. A creature that Virgil knew well. It slowly made its way onto the collapsed porch. Ignoring its surroundings, the creature looked directly at Virgil with sharp, green eyes before turning back around and returning into the flames. _


	7. What's Going On?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First: There is a trigger warning for this chapter.
> 
> Second: Thank you to everyone who is patient with me when it comes to uploading chapters. I am working a full-time job as well as a temporary second full-time job so life has been pretty hectic lately. My temp job is ending soon so hopefully I can get back to a more normal uploading schedule. 
> 
> Once again I do read through each chapter multiple times to try and correct mistakes I make while writing, though there are times where I miss things.
> 
> Hope you are enjoying the story as much as I am enjoying writing it!

Virgil woke up laying on the floor of his room. His breath was coming out ragged and heavy as tears fell down his face. He curled in on himself as his mind raced, reliving the nightmare he just had.  _ I need to calm down. It wasn’t real… It wasn’t real… It...wasn’t… real… _

It felt like forever before he finally was able to calm himself down. Slowly, he sat himself up and stared around his room. His eyebrows furrowed as he realized that he was laying on the floor right by his bedroom door. He tried to think back to how he ended up on the floor when a sudden, dull pounding started in his head. At that moment everything from earlier replayed through his mind. 

Virgil ran his hand through his hair as he leaned his back against his door. As he slowly worked through earlier events, he started to sense something off. “Something is wrong with Thomas…” This began to worry Virgil. Thomas was fine earlier as far as Virgil knew, but now he wasn’t. What happened while he was out?

For a short while, Virgil watched the sun work its way down across the sky. He was so overwhelmed by everything that he really didn’t want to move. Unfortunately, he knew he needed to head downstairs. Virgil eventually convinced himself to get up and make his way out of his room.

Virgil made his way down the hall and down the stairs. As he got to the bottom of the stairs he turned his head and saw Roman and Patton. The two other side were in the living room and looked to be arguing in harsh whispers. He tried to make it to the kitchen without alerting the others to his presence, but luck wasn’t on his side. As he was walking past he accidentally kicked the table along the wall, causing both Roman and Patton’s head to shoot up and look at him.

The other two sides looked at him in shock before they seem to come to their senses. Patton rushed forward and started checking Virgil up and down, asking questions about “How was he doing?” and “What happened?” and “What were you thinking?”. Virgil’s head was spinning from Patton’s fatherly concern, He spared a glance at Roman and saw him still standing in the living room with his arms crossed across his chest and his eyebrows furrowed.

“What’s the matter, Roman?”, Virgil dared the question. Roman’s eyes raised to meet his and it caused Virgil to flinch. Roman started forward until he was standing almost directly in front of him. Patton stepped to the side, eyes filled with worry.

A low growl was made in Roman’s throat as he glared at Virgil. “Virgil! What’s going on? First, your behavior has been off for a few weeks now. Second, you come back this afternoon and basically ignore me as you sprint upstairs. Something is clearly wrong with you! What happened to us working together?!”

Every statement that Roman made caused a stabbing pain to run through Virgil’s chest. Though he wanted to blame and be angry at Roman, Virgil knew he couldn’t. He had been keeping secrets from the others, but it was for good reasons, right? He started to doubt his own intentions. Roman was still going off and Patton was now trying to calm him down, but Virgil couldn’t hear them anymore. He stared ahead as his thoughts started to overwhelm him.

Virgil was about to start panicking when all of a sudden a hand was placed on his shoulder. Virgil’s head snapped to the side to see Logan now standing next to him. A quick look at Logan, and he could tell that Logan knew that he was distressed. Virgil could always count on Logan to come in with the save.

Logan turned to look at Roman and Patton. “I do not know what I was interrupting, but I do believe that we all need to calm down and take a breath.” Patton’s hand was still resting on Roman’s shoulder, Virgil watched as Roman's anger slowly started to diminish. It always amazed Virgil how Patton and Logan could calm both him and Roman down when things were tense.

Virgil looked to Logan to ask him where he had been, when out of the corner of his eye he noticed the book that he was holding. Virgil raised his eyebrow, “What’s with the old book that you’re holding there?”. Logan looked caught off guard for a second before looking down where he seemed to remember that he was, in fact, holding a book. 

Patton took a step forward and leaned down to look at the book, “Yeah what is with the book, Lo? I noticed it on your desk earlier when I checked on you in the archives, but you seemed stressed enough that I didn’t want to bombard you with questions.”

Logan raised the book up so that the other sides could see it. “Looks very old if you ask me. Something you would catch an old fairy tale or legend to be in.” Roman stated this while seemingly admiring the cover of the book. “You are correct in that observation, Roman.” Logan stated while opening the book and flipping through the pages.

“I found the book on my desk in the archive, much like Patton’s observation, though I am unsure of exactly where it came from. I haven’t seen this book before in all my searching of the archives. Though I am unsure of the books origins, the contents of the book are quite intriguing, even if they are not in my particular taste of genre.”

The other sides stared at Logan in slight confusion. Logan glanced up from where he had been skimming a page and sighed. Roman grabbed the book out of Logan’s hands (causing Logan to scowl) and opened it, starting to skim through the pages himself. “Sooo… What exactly is the ‘intriguing contents’ of this book anyways?”

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose in agitation before carefully, but firmly, grabbing the book back from Roman. Logan opened the book again, skimmed through the pages, and stopped on a page before turning the book around for the other sides to see what was on it. What was on the page caused Virgil to freeze. 

On the page was four figures, each figure wore a hooded robe. The figure at the top a pale blue hooded robe, arms stretched out. The figure on the left in a navy blue robe, book with glowing words in hand, On the right, a red hooded figure holding a sword. And in the center a purple hooded figure.

Virgil’s breath hitched as Logan started talking about the tale the book told. It told of four guardians having to travel to a dark fortress to defeat an evil, destructive spirit in order to protect their lands. It mentioned friends turning on friends, and one of the guardians sacrificing something they held dear. 

“The things thats most intriguing about the story though…” Logan continued, turning to the very end of the book where there seemed to be a bunch of pages torn out, “Is the fact that the story doesn’t have an ending. Seems that the book’s previous owner may have disliked it and torn the rest of the story out.”

The moment Logan mentioned the missing ending, Virgil’s nightmares flashed through his mind. Devastated fields, the darkscape opening up, the destruction of his home and family. It was all too much. Virgil’s hands shot up into his hair as he let out a small whimper. This caught the attention of the others.

“Virgil, are you quite alright?” Logan asks, trying to re-establish his hold on Virgil’s shoulder. Virgil flinched away and started to back up. He couldn’t breath, the others were too close. He needed to get out of the manor, he needed space. Virgil quickly turned around and sprinted out of the manor front door, leaving the other sides standing staring after him.

“Should we… you know… go after him?” Roman asked hesitantly. He had no idea what was going on with Virgil, but it wasn’t good whatever it was. “I know we all agreed that some times Virgil needs his space, but I don’t think this is one of those times… I think we need to talk to him.” Logan and Patton looked at each other. Patton gave a sad sigh while Logan’s shoulders sagged a little.

Roman took that as a sign of agreement and headed towards the partially opened front door. Glancing through the opening, Roman could see that Virgil had stayed just outside on the porch swing wrapped tightly in his purple, plaid blanket that he kept there. Looking behind him, Roman noticed that both Logan and Patton were now next to him, waiting for his next move. Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the door and walked over to Virgil.

Roman moved and sat down on Virgil’s left arm around his shoulders, Patton curled in on his right, and Logan chose to lean against the porch railing close to the others. For a moment, all that could be heard was the soft sound of the rain falling around them, it hadn’t let up from earlier in the day. The sun was slowly starting to set as the four friends quietly sat on the porch taking comfort in each of their presences. 

Eventually someone had to break the silence. “Virgil, what’s been going on?” Patton asked in a soft voice, sitting up to place his hand on Virgil’s shoulder. Virgil peeked out of his blanket cocoon and saw the concerned looks on the others’ faces (yes, even Logan’s). He knew he needed to tell them, they had to know. The fact that his dreams and the book that just ‘appeared’ in Logan’s office were so similar couldn’t just be a coincidence… There was no way.

Logan looked at Virgil with concerned eyes, “Virgil, I apologize if I had said something that distressed you. I do hope you know that whatever it was, I meant no harm.” Virgil’s eyes widened in shock, “On no! It wasn’t any of you guys, I promise! It’s just… I just… I don’t”, Virgil’s stuttering did not help his jumping train of thought. He couldn’t seem to form words properly.

The others sat patiently as Virgil seemed to be trying to get his thoughts together. Virgil looked up at each of the sides, stopping on Patton. Patton was sitting there with a look of confusion, though it didn’t seem to be directed at him. “Hey, Patton… Eh, what’s the matter?”, Virgil asked worried about his friend.

Patton snapped out of the trance that he seemed to be in. “Does anyone else see the cat that’s sitting there in the middle of the road?” This caught the others off guard, each of their heads quickly turned around to look at where Patton was pointing. It surprised each of them that there was, in fact, a cat sitting in the middle of the road in front of the mind palace.

The others just stared at the cat in confusion, while Virgil just stared in shock. He couldn’t believe his eyes. It wasn’t just any cat sitting in the middle of the road, “Nyx?...” It was his cat. Virgil stood up and slowly made his way down the porch steps. Ignoring the rain, he walked forward. He stopped in front of Nyx and reached down and to try and pet her, when she quickly bolted away. Nyx ran a couple feet away, turned back around and sat, staring at Virgil intently with her sharp, green eyes.

“I think the cat wants us to follow them.” Virgil jumped as he turned to see who had spoken to him. Roman stood next to him staring at the cat, Logan and Patton stood on the porch steps watching them. “ I think you’re right Roman, but I would rather follow her on my own. It’s raining and all four of us don’t need to get sick.” Virgil tried to reason, but looking at the others’ faces he knew there was no getting out of this. 

“No can do, Stormcloud. We are coming with you.”, Roman had that determined look on his face and Virgil knew he wouldn’t be able to change his mind. Virgil looked to Logan and Patton for help but they were already making their way down towards them. With a heavy sigh, Virgil begrudgingly gave in. “Alright, let’s go…”

As Virgil and the others followed behind Nyx, Virgil explained how he knew the cat. He told the others that the cat’s name was Nyx and that she had been his cat while he had been living in the darkscape manor. Nyx had at some point led them off the stone path and into the Fields for Wandering Thoughts.

“Well if she was your cat at the manor, why is she here now?” Logan asked as they seemed to have been walking for a while. Roman and Patton also had their eyes on him too as he talked. Virgil saw Nyx stop and quickly walked forward and picked her up, “I’m not sure. The last time I saw her was years ago. I have no idea why she would suddenly…” Virgil paused, eyes wide open in fear.

The others turned their eyes to look at where Virgil was staring, each of their expressions starting to mirror his own. Nyx had led the boys to a part of the fields that was completely dead and wilted. Some parts looked worse than others, but it was clear that it was slowly growing.

“What’s… What’s going on?!” Patton asked, distress clear in his voice. “Everything looks dead. Destroyed… I don’t understand.” Roman stated, based on how his eyes were racing over the fields you could tell that he was trying to comprehend what he was looking at.

“I believe what we are looking at, is called corruption.” Logan said as a hard looked made its way on his face. Virgil flinch hearing the word out loud. He had been avoiding using that word for so long. Praying that if he didn’t say it or acknowledge it, it wouldn’t be true. But, now he was awake and he was seeing it for himself.

Roman, Logan, and Patton were standing here beside him watching the corruption take place. He knew there was no avoiding it anymore. He could no longer deny that these things that have been happening, the dreams that he’s been having, aren't coincidence. He had to tell them, and he needed to tell them now.

“Guys… Let’s go home. It’s time I do some explaining.” Virgil stated, as he started walking back to the mind palace with Nyx in his arms.


	8. Decisions Made

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone! I'm back! Sorry for the long wait, its been a really busy month and a half due to the holidays and work. Here's the new chapter and I should have the next chapter soon, I have it about a third of the way done. Enjoy!

Virgil laid awake all night thinking about the conversation he had with the others. It certainly didn’t go as bad as he had thought that it would, but it didn’t go as well as it could have either.

_ After they had returned to the mind palace last night from their trip to the Fields for Wandering Thoughts, Virgil decided it was time to tell the others what had been going on… With him at least.  _

_ When they had returned, each of the different sides went to their individual rooms to dry off from the rain. While he was changing into some dry clothes and drying off Nyx, Virgil thought about just staying in his room and not talking to them… But he knew that wasn’t an option. He finished getting ready and headed downstairs.  _

_ They had decided that they were going to have the conversation in the living room. Virgil settled down into the recliner in the living room and Nyx had curled up on his lap (he felt the need to separate himself). Logan and Roman settled on the couch, and after he had finished making everyone some hot chocolate, Patton joined them as well. _

_ Virgil remembered sitting their and feeling self conscience, having all their eyes on him. He had taken a deep breath, stared down at his hands, and started from the beginning. He told them about the original dream that he had been having (about him walking through the manor). He told them about how the dream had been happening for a while now and how it had been affecting him. He talked about how he had been having some off days, and that today had been the worst that he’s had yet. The last thing that he told him about was the dream he had after he passed out from his trip to Imagination Village earlier in the day (the corrupted fields and destroyed manor). _

_ When Virgil had finished he looked up from his hands to his friends to see how they were reacting. Patton had a look on his face that was a mixture of concern and fear. Logan had a contemplative look on his face. Roman… Roman looked like he was about to explode. He was fidgeting in his seat, his eyebrows furrowed in what looked to be anger.  _

_ Virgil stayed in his seat and started to nervously pet Nyx. He knew he deserved whatever Roman had to say… He had braced himself. Then Roman abruptly stood up, took a deep breath, and simply said “I’m going to bed, goodnight.”, and went upstairs.  _

_ Patton, Logan, and Virgil watched him leave. After Roman had disappeared up the stairs, Logan turned to the other two while standing up, “I think Roman has the right idea. A lot has occurred today and it might be best that we continue this conversation after we all get some sleep.”. Logan gave a quick nod to the others before retiring himself upstairs as well. _

_Virgil’s eyes went back down to his hands, which had stopped petting Nyx and were now fidgeting with his sleeves. A few moments later, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Patton standing next to him. __  
_ _“You okay there kiddo?” He asked, his voice had that comforting tone to it that he always had when he was worried about one of them. Virgil reached one of his hands up and patted Patton’s hand. Giving him a sad smile he answered, “I’m gonna be fine, Patton. Why don’t you go to bed and we can continue talking about this in the morning. Okay?”. _

_ Patton looked like he was about to say something, but decided to go with “Okay, kiddo. Night… See you in the morning.”Virgil watched as Patton walked up the stairs and disappeared as well. Virgil had stayed in the living room for a little while longer before gathering up Nyx and finally heading upstairs to his bedroom. _

Since returning upstairs, Virgil hadn’t gotten any sleep. He had been laying in his bed all night thinking through the many different outcomes that could have happened if he had made other choices. He knew there was no use dwelling on the situation, but he couldn’t help it. It helped distract him, but now that the situation was in front of him, he needed to think about what was going to happen next. 

The answer was pretty obvious but he hated thinking about it. It all came down to his dream. The answers that they were looking for were in the one place that he told himself that he would never go back to. They lay hidden in the depths of the worst place he could think of. To fix the problem, they needed to go to the manor… correction,  _ HE  _ needed to go to the manor.

Virgil was  _ not  _ letting the other sides set foot in the manor. It was too dangerous. He hated the thought of himself having to go back but if it meant that their problems would possibly be solved… He would have to take that risk… and what a risk it would be.

So many things could happen. So many things could go wrong. He could go to the manor, solve the problem… or not, and after all that, he could end up stuck in the manor again, never to return…  _ No! I can’t think that way. I have to do this. If it keeps getting worse then everything that we’ve worked towards will be destroyed, corrupted. _

Virgil was having an internal battle with himself. Part of him was panicking and trying to convince himself to not go back to the manor. The other part was telling him to stick to his resolve. He laid on his back, staring at the ceiling. He didn’t know what he should be feeling at that moment. 

Eventually, he saw the sun start to peak out from beyond his window.  _ Guess there’s no point in me staying in bed any longer. Might as well get up and get this day started.  _

Virgil slowly got himself up and ready for the day. Nyx had curled herself into the blankets on Virgil’s bed, with an affectionate smile, he pet her softly as to not disturb her too much and left his room. 

Virgil walked out of his bedroom, and unlike he normally would, he left his bedroom door open so Nyx could get out if she wanted to. He headed downstairs to get himself something to drink. As he got to the bottom of the stairs he noticed how eerily quiet it was as no one else was up at this moment. Virgil let out a sigh as he headed towards the kitchen to make himself some coffee. 

After his coffee was finished, Virgil positioned himself on the kitchen counter next to the fridge to drink it. After a little while, Virgil was startled out of his thoughts when he heard heavy footsteps come down the stairs. From around the corner Roman appeared. Roman entered the kitchen, seemingly ignoring Virgil, and got himself a glass of milk.

Roman positioned himself leaning against the opposite counter from Virgil, he took a long drink from his glass before he looked up at him. Virgil fidgeted in his seat as Roman just stared at him. Virgil was just about to ask Roman what was on his mind when Roman spoke, “Why?”.

“What?” Virgil asked. He was slightly startled by Roman’s sudden question. “Why did you keep something so important from us?” Roman took another sip of his milk before continuing. “If something like this was going on, why would you not tell us so that we could help you?” Roman’s eyes held this almost pleading look to them. Virgil was not used to seeing such a vulnerable look on the prince’s face, a guilty feeling washed over him.

Sighing, Virgil ran his hand through his hair. As he was about to answer Roman, he heard a slight shuffling coming from the side. Looking over, Virgil noticed that both Logan and Patton were standing looking at his as well. How he hadn’t heard or noticed them before was beyond him, but they were here now.

Logan walked into the kitchen. Virgil watched him as he first poured Patton a glass of milk, handed it off, and went to the coffee pot to pour himself some coffee. After moving to settle next to Roman leaning on the counter, Logan stated “I am curious to the answer to his question as well, Virgil.” 

Patton had moved to sit on the counter next to Virgil (which is something he normally wouldn’t do) and looked and him. “We aren’t mad… We’re just concerned. This is usually the kind of thing that you would’ve come to us about. When things started going wrong and you started shutting us out again, it worried us a lot.”

“Patton’s right.” Roman added at the end. Virgil looked at him, “You could’ve fooled me with how you responded last night.” he responded snarkily. Roman huffed and looked like he was about to snap back a reply before Logan interrupted him by placing a hand on his shoulder.

Virgil looked between his three friends. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. He thought that he had been doing a decent job hiding that something was wrong, but instead he had been doing nothing but worry them.  _ All I ever do is cause them trouble… Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I ended up stuck in the manor again. _

Virgil felt a hand on his shoulder and turned his head to look at Patton. Virgil lifted his hand, that wasn’t holding his cup, and rested it on Patton’s. With a sigh he finally answered “I was scared…” 

“At first I didn’t think anything of it. I thought it was just a phase that was happening, since unintentional worry and stress happen to me a lot. Eventually though, it got worse. As I mentioned last night, it started affecting how I slept, if I slept at all. The effects lasted through the day and I am ashamed to admit that I began to fear having to tell you guys. I believed that if I ignored the dreams I wouldn’t have to face them… and what they meant.”

Virgil ended his mini rant and glanced up at the others. Each had a look on their face that looked to be on the border of both sympathetic and understanding. Virgil had hoped that they would just leave the conversation there but of course, Roman had to be the one to ask the dreaded question, “And? What do these dreams mean?”

“Well Roman” Logan spoke up causing everyone to look at him. “If my deduction is correct, based on what Virgil has told us up to this point, something is wrong within the Mindscape. Though I am unsure why the rest of us haven’t sensed anything wrong, my assumption is that it has something to do with the fact that it takes place in the Darkscape and Virgil has a previous connection with it.”

Virgil was about to step in when Patton continued on,“Soooo… What you’re saying is that in order to solve the possible problem and help Virgil, we need to go to the Darkscape manor!”. Logan nodded to Patton, “Yes, that is exactly what I mean. It would seem that the answers to our questions lie in wait at the Manor.”

“How exciting! What an adventure we have before us.” Roman pushed himself off the counter and walked into the kitchen. Turning around, he made a heroic pose in the dining room. “We shall go at once! I have never been to the Darkscape before. What do you suppose is there? Monsters? Witches? OMG, DRAGON WITCHES?!”

“NO!” everyone in the kitchen startled and turned to face Virgil. Virgil was shaking and breathing heavily. Everyone’s faces grew concerned, seeing his reaction to their conversation. “Virgil, are you okay?” Patton asked. “I apologize for my outburst, Virgil. I know I can get carried away, but…” Roman started to explain before Virgil raised his hand to stop him.

“There is no ‘we’ in this.” Virgil started. “I know you are all concerned, but I don’t want you to be a part of this. The Darkscape is a dangerous place. These are my dreams and so I plan on going back to the manor, ALONE.” Virgil did his best to sound serious and unafraid. He thought it had worked and that none of the others would question him until, “Have any of us ever been able to solve a situation by ourselves?”. Virgil looked at Logan.

“If we think back on the past two decades that all four of us have coexisted within the mindscape, have any of us truly been able to solve any of Thomas’ problems by ourselves? It has been proven, time and time again, that we solve problems BETTER when we work together.”

Virgil stared at Logan, out of all the sides he was the last one that Virgil ever thought he would hear promoting “teamwork”. Virgil opened his mouth to say something when, once again, he was interrupted. “Logan’s right, you also said it was dangerous! Who better to have with you than a dashing prince there to protect you!” Roman said, holding his arms out before doing a bow.

Patton jumped off the counter and stood in front of Virgil. “Kiddo, you’re not going by yourself. We do much better when we are all together and you aren’t getting out of us going with you.” Virgil looked at each of their faces. They all had that same look of determination on their faces, “Are you all sure about this?” he asked in one last (pathetic) attempt to get them to change their minds. 

Each of the other sides nodded their head in response to his questions. After getting their responses, Virgil thought he would feel terrible, instead though he felt nothing but relief. The others were going with him and he felt guilty that he was so relieved. 

Looking up he saw Nyx had made her way down and was sitting at the bottom of the stairs. Virgil placed his mug on the counter and jumped off. Walking over he picked Nyx up in his arms and turned around. With one final sigh he looked at Patton, Roman, and Logan.

“I guess we should start getting ready for our trip to the Darkscape.”


	9. Getting Ready to Go

After Virgil’s announcement, the sides went their separate ways to prepare themselves for their trip to the Darkscape.

Virgil was in his room sitting on his bed when he heard a knock on his door. Getting up he walked over to the door and opened it, Logan stood on the other side of the door with the old book from yesterday in hand. Though he had been expecting Logan’s appearance, he was kind of hoping he would hold off till  _ after  _ their trip. Stepping aside, he allowed Logan into the room.

Logan stepped inside and turned and looked at Virgil, with a slight tilt of the head from him, Virgil shut the door. “I assume you wanted to talk about the similarities between my dream and the book?” Virgil inquired with a sigh. “I won’t make this discussion long since the others are most likely waiting for us in the living room, but any other information you might be able to give…” Logan veered off giving Virgil a look.

Virgil knew what information Logan was looking for. He wanted to know if Virgil knew how this whole situation was going to end (since the ending was torn from the book he was holding). Virgil just shook his head and watched his normally stoic friend’s shoulders sink just that fraction of an inch.

Virgil hated disappointing any of them. It seemed that that’s all he’s done the last twenty-four hours since this whole mess has escalated. Virgil started fiddling with the threads on the sleeve of his hoodie. He heard Logan exhale and looked back up at him. Logan had opened the book and was flipping through the pages with a ferocity that only meant that he was looking for something specific.

Logan eventually stopped on a page and flipped the book around to hand it to Virgil. Virgil looked at the page and noticed, that unlike the other pages that had color, this page was completely devoid of colors. It showed a black, dripping canvas hanging over one of the hooded figures. There was no indication, but Virgil had a sinking feeling he knew which one it was. A quick glance up through his bangs told him that Logan had his suspicions as well.

Sighing seemed to be Virgil’s new favorite thing to do. Virgil closed the book and handed it back to Logan. He tried to find the words to say but none came out. It probably looked funny to Logan with him standing there opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. And, if he were being honest, that’s what he felt like. 

The only thing that he could muster up was “Please don’t mention this to Patton or Roman… We don’t know anything for sure and I don’t want either of them worrying more than they already are.”. It was just barely louder than a whisper, but Logan seemed to hear it just fine. Logan walked past him and opened his door, before leaving Logan turned around and looked Virgil in the eyes, “Though it may feel like it sometimes Virgil… You are not alone nor are you expected deal with everything alone. We have all been through enough together that you should know we have your back if you need a helping hand.” With that, Logan walked out closing the door behind him.

Virgil once again sat on his bed and looked around his room. A heavy feeling washed over him as a sudden thought came to mind.  _ Something might happen today that could result in me never seeing this room again... _ Virgil almost felt like he wanted to cry, but he couldn’t, not now. 

His eyes moved over to his closet and then another thought crossed over him. Absentmindedly, Virgil walked over to his closet and opened the door. Looking in his closet his eyes moved up to the very back corner on the tallest shelf where a box was sitting. Virgil quickly grabbed the box and left the closet. Setting it on his bed, he opened the flaps to look at the contents inside. Inside the box was his old black hoodie he had worn for the longest time till he decided to switch up his style back in 2017.

Looking at that old hoodie brought back many memories, both good and bad. Before he changed his mind he slipped off his purple hoodie and replaced it with the black one. Instead of leaving his purple hoodie in his room, he took it with him, only sparing a quick glance back at his door before finally making his way downstairs.

When Virgil finally enter the living room he heard a collective gasp. Looking up he noticed all the other sides staring at him. Trying to ignore their stares he quickly walked over to the couch and laid his purple hoodie on it next to where Nyx had seemed to decide she wanted to nap while everyone was getting ready.

“Why are you wearing your old jacket?” Virgil turned around to look at Roman who had asked the question. There was no ill-intent behind his question but his face held a masked look of discomfort that seemed to radiate the room. “Well, we are going into the Darkscape and I don’t know what we will be encountering upon arrival. I don’t want to ruin my good jacket so I figured I might as well switch it out for the short time being.” There were hesitant nods of understanding from around the room.

Virgil looked at the others and noticed how they had prepared. They all had seemed to pack lightly for the trip. Logan had a messenger bag hanging off his shoulder that Virgil was sure he could see the old book peeking out of. Roman stood there with his sword hanging dutifully at his side. Patton had a backpack on, Virgil had no idea what he had packed into it but he felt confident in Patton’s fatherly nature that whatever it was would be useful.

A few moments later and Virgil felt something jump up onto his shoulders, turning his head slightly he saw that Nyx had woken up and decided that she would now perch herself on his shoulder for the trip. “It looks like everyone is ready to go. So let’s get going.” With that, Virgil and the others headed out the mind palace front door.

Stopping at the foot of the porch stairs, Virgil stopped and turned towards the others, “Last call. Does everyone have everything the need, there’s no turning back once we get started.” There was a collective round of nodding and affirmations. 

With that Virgil started heading down the path towards the entrance to the Darkscape, the only comfort he felt at that moment was hearing the footsteps of the others following behind him. 


	10. Entering the Darkscape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING!
> 
> This chapter does have a few parts in it that may trigger some folks. Please take caution while reading.
> 
> As I'm pretty sure i have stated, I am not claiming to be an expert on how to write anxiety or panic attacks. Mine are very minuscule compared to the ones I know some people have. For this reason I don't go into too much detail of the attack, I do enough to help explain that one is, in fact, happening. I know the look and happen different for everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone! I'm back again with my second upload in a week. I'm on a role. I have to say of the 10 parts so far I have written for this story, this one has been so far my favorite. There is so much in this chapter and it kind of helps you build an understanding of the Darkscape I have created for my story, as well as give you a little understanding into Virgil's character for this story.
> 
> As always I try to reread through the story multiple times through the writing process to make sure it reads okay, but like always I may miss things. If you ever have any questions please feel free to leave a comment to ask and I will do my best to answer or I will try to include it into the next part. We are finally getting into the good part of the story! Thank you for your continued patience and hopefully I'll keep popping out chapters on a more consistent basis.
> 
> I honestly have loved working on this story and hope you are enjoying reading it.

The sun shined brightly above the four sides as they walked along the stone pathway. They walked in companionable silence as they each had a lot to think about along with the fact that they each were trying to avoid looking off into the Fields for Wandering Thoughts (with what knowledge they had about what was taking place). 

Logan, Patton, and Roman dutifully followed behind Virgil as they waited to see where the mysterious path to the darkscape was. They weren’t expecting Virgil to stop in the middle of the path. The others looked around in confusion at the area around them. Nothing but the usual endless fields of flowers with blue skies and sunshine. 

Virgil let them stand there in confusion for a little bit, allowing himself to take a few moments of private amusement from their faces. After almost a minute, Virgil allowed himself to laugh. Their eyes focused back on him and they all had agitation on their faces. Roman snapped “What’s so funny? I thought we were heading to the Darkscape?”

Virgil chuckled, “I’m sorry for laughing, your faces were priceless. Also, we are heading to the Darkscape. The entrance is right here.”. The others looked around again before looking back at him.

“Um, kiddo? There’s nothing here… All I can see is the normal endless fields, the stone pathway, and that cracked rock by your feet.”

“Exactly, Patton.” Virgil replied, looking at Nyx (who was still perched on his shoulders) with a small smile on his face. “This rock may seem like an ordinary rock, but it is actually the entrance into the Darkscape. What better place to hide the entrance than in plain sight.” 

Roman, Patton, and Logan looked at him for a moment, their faces saying that they didn’t believe them. “Virgil, I hate to be the one who questions your intelligence here, but I don’t think that that rock is the entrance to the Darkscape? Could it possibly be that since it has been almost twenty years since you were last there, that maybe you have actually forgotten where the actual entrance is?”, Logan gave him that inquisitive look he always does.

“Logan, I appreciate your concern but I promise you that this is the entrance to the Darkscape. Since Thomas is naturally a genuinely good person, the entrance to the dark mindset isn’t as obvious as it is in some people. It’s hidden for only those who need to know.”. Virgil watched Logan nod understandingly.

Virgil turned his attention from the others to Nyx, he gave her a slight nudge with his head and she seemed to get the message. Jumping off Virgil’s shoulder Nyx only gave the other sides a quick side glance before jumping towards the rock… and disappearing.

Roman and Patton’s eyes were wide open and they had their mouths gaped. Logan had a less surprised look, but still surprised nonetheless. Virgil let another chuckle escape his lips. “Alright before we head into the Darkscape, I need each of you to show me one of your wrists. I will explain more once we are over there, but for now I just need you to trust me.” 

They glanced at each other quick before they each raised a wrist for Virgil to see. “Thank you.” Virgil walked forward and took each of their wrists in his hand. Taking his pointer finger, Virgil drew an invisible shape on the inside of their wrists. After he finished and was satisfied, he stepped back towards the entrance. “Like I said before. It will make a little more sense once we are on the other side. Now all you need to do is walk forward and step right over the rock.”, and with that, Virgil walked through the portal.

Once Virgil walked through the portal he was immediately hit with the smell of decaying foliage. He took a few steps forward and stopped when Nyx walked forward and jumped, reclaiming her spot on his shoulder. A few seconds later Logan appeared through the entrance, followed by Patton, and lastly Roman.

They each took a moment to look around them. The sky hanging above them was grey and gloomy. The forest surrounding was almost like that of a horror film. Dark, twisted trees lined the cracked stone path as far as the eye could see (which wasn’t very far due to the heavy fog that was a permanent characteristic of the forest). Dead leaves, moss covered stones, and twigs made their home on the damp forest floor. There was cracking and rustling happening all around them, the sound echoing with the wind. 

A particularly loud crack happened from behind the entrance causing all of them to jump, Patton jumping forward and grabbing onto the back of Logan’s shirt. It took a moment before any of them looked down at their wrists, Roman was the first to notice. “Whoa! What is going on on my wrist?” His outburst caused both Patton and Logan to look at their wrists as well.

On their wrists, where Virgil had ‘drawn’, was a glowing, purple mark. The mark looked like a circle with three overlapping swirls. “Those are symbols of protection.” The three sides look up from their wrists to him. “If you remember back to how spending an extended time in my room started to negatively affect you? Well being in the Darkscape is almost fifty times worse and that symbol is there to negate any negative effects that could happen.”

They all were looking at him in confusion. Finally, Logan asked, “How is this possible? It makes no sense…” Logan’s eyebrows furrow as he tries to make sense of the situation. 

Virgil raised his hand for them to see, and allowed for a little bit of his power to be released. They watched as Virgil’s hand started to get a purple aura surrounding it. “Here in the Darkscape things work a little differently. In the Mindscape the aim is to build and support, growth and positivity is key. In the Darkscape the aim is to destroy and hurt. In order to allow for the most corruptive potential, the Darkscape gifted its inhabitants with extremely destructive powers and abilities.”

Virgil lowered his hand, diminishing his power and holding it close to his heart with his other, he gave his friends a sad, shaky smile. “As a former inhabitant of this realm, I still maintain my powers and abilities though they don’t transfer into the Mindscape. This is why it’s so important for the entrance into the negative mindset to be so small and hidden. If it were any bigger or if it was more obvious, it would start allowing for the corruptive and destructive characteristics to leak into the positive mindset… and destroy it.”

The look of fear that crossed over Roman, Patton, and Logan’s faces was enough to make Virgil look away. It hurt, but it was the truth. He used to be one of the monsters that roamed this land a long time ago. He was ashamed of all the suffering he put Thomas through when he had no control over it. In the Darkscape, there is no free thought, you are what you are and you do what you were formed to do.

Virgil felt tears threaten again, this time he couldn’t stop them from falling. Staring down at his trembling hands, he couldn’t help the thoughts that ran through his head.  _ You screwed up again. Why would you tell them those things! Why would you tell them those things about yourself. They hate you now. They probably hope that you get stuck here, it’s where you belong. _

Virgil had no idea when he had sank to the floor or when his fingers had made their way into his hair. He only became aware of it when he felt gentle hands slowly start to detangle his fingers. The next thing he became aware of was the hand that was rubbing up and down his back. Through his mess of thoughts Virgil could vaguely hear Roman saying “Breathe in for four seconds… Hold your breath for seven seconds… Now breathe out for eight seconds…” Virgil did his best to do as Roman was telling him. It took a few minutes for him to calm down enough where he could open his eyes.

Patton sat in front of him, holding his hands tightly while rubbing his thumbs on the back of them. Roman sat to his right and was rubbing his hand up and down his back. Logan sat to his left, Nyx looked to have made herself a temporary home in his lap while the two of them waited for Patton and Roman to help Virgil down. After a few more moments Logan made a soft noise in his throat to get their attention.

“Virgil… I know you said that you gave Roman, Patton, and I the protection symbols on our wrists to protect us from the effects of the Darkscape… But have you done anything to protect yourself? It seems like since entering your anxiety has increased greatly.” His eyes held concern as he asked Virgil this question.

Virgil looked between each of their wrists and then down to his own. The sleeve of his black hoodie had ridden up a little when Patton pulled his hands down. “I am unable to do any sort of protection for myself… I thought after twenty years of techniques and learning how to manage, I would be able to handle this a lot better. I didn’t realize just how strong the Darkscape was…” 

Virgil watched as Patton let go of his hands, and then placed his on each of his cheeks. Holding his head still. This was the first time he had noticed that Patton had tears falling as well. “Virgil, you are not alone. Until we can find a way to prevent these things from happening, let us protect you like you are protecting us. Please?” Virgil couldn’t say no to Patton, especially when he looked so desperate. Virgil had no idea what any of them would possibly be able to do, but for now he would give Patton this. Virgil gave Patton a nod in reply and that seemed to make him a little happier. 

It took a little bit longer for Virgil to fully calm down, but he eventually did and they started on their way to the Darkscape manor. As they walked they all remained alert. Nyx made her way back onto Virgil’s shoulder and Patton had moved to holding onto Virgil’s sleeve as they walked. Logan Walked behind Virgil and Patton. Roman walked at the back of the line, hand resting on the hilt of his sword. Eventually after what felt like forever, the manor finally came into view.

The Darkscape manor was as terrifying as he remembered. To the right of him, he heard Roman gasp as Patton curled in closer to Logan’s back (his knuckles almost white with how tight he was holding onto Logan’s shirt). Roman turned to look at Virgil, “Is this  _ really _ where you, Deceit, and Remus spent your early years before coming to the Mindscape?”. His tone held fear while his eyes held some poorly hidden pity.

Virgil turned from Roman to look back at the manor. He felt his lips form into a tight line and hoped that his silence answered that question. As it was, just standing outside manor was causing him to have some awful flashbacks to his early years. Dark hallways, terrifying screams, and an indescribable loneliness. He had no idea how long he had spaced out or when he started shaking, but he was broken out of his trance by Logan’s hand on his left shoulder, Roman’s hand on his right arm, and Patton hugging him from behind. Nyx had nuzzled her head into the side of his face and was purring as loud as she could.

Logan’s words from earlier echo in his head and he felt tears (happy ones) threaten to spill from his eyes. He knew it was stupid, but that same feeling of relief of having his friends with him returned and he couldn’t help it. It almost helped calm his fears of him ending up stuck in the manor...almost. Either way at that moment all he could do was reach up to scratch Nyx’s head and say, “Thanks, guys.” Slowly, the four of them separated and turned their attention back to the manor. 

The manor was surrounded by an old, rusted iron fence, It could scare almost anyone. The manor looked like a small, Victorian house. The walls were crumbling and covered in moss and vines. It had four towers with cracked stain-glass windows (Virgil could’ve even sworn he saw something move in one of them). 

The wood of the porch was rotten to the point where it looked as though you couldn’t stand on it. It might of looked small on the outside, but one should know to never judge something based on outward appearances. The inside of the manor was filled with winding and twisting hallways. There were countless rooms throughout the many floors. Many of the rooms were open for beings to go into, while others were locked (and for good reasons). The hallways dripped a black substance and dark shadows and figments roamed the halls. 

Virgil moved forward towards the gate, then he stopped abruptly. Turning back toward the other sides, Virgil put on a stern face, “Before we go into the manor I am going to set some ground rules.” 

“One: Do not enter any room unless I instruct it. We are going to try and stay in the hallways as much as possible. The manor may look small on the outside, but it is huge on the inside. The rooms shift and change with whatever being is traveling through them. Many horrors and creatures exist within those rooms and I don’t want to deal with anything we do not have to.”

“Two: Be careful of the Figments that wander the halls. Unlike the Mindscape where the has minor sides just reside in Imagination Village and contribute their roles as needed, the Darkscape does not. The Darkscape has two categories of sides. It has Figments, which are not completely formed negative sides. Then it has the true  dark  sides. Speaking of which…”

“Three:  _ Never _ go to the upper floors of the manor. The true, dark sides reside on the upper floors, many of them are locked up in various rooms. As you saw earlier, the Darkscape gives the creatures and beings that reside in it powers and abilities that vary depending on how dangerous and powerful the being is. Before you ask, I don’t know if you guys will be given abilities as well, so don’t expect anything. But, I know for certain that there are plenty of sides here that will take great pleasure in destroying one of Thomas’ ‘precious’ light sides.”

“Four and Finally: Stay Together! I will not stress this enough. It’s dangerous. At least if we stay together, Roman can use his katana and I can use my abilities to protect you guys while we look for information.”

Virgil took a deep breath. He had just talked quite a bit and given quite a bit of information to the others. Though it was more talking than he was used to, he felt it was necessary in order to make sure the others stayed as safe as possible. He looked at Roman, Patton, and Logan in their eyes. He saw understanding written across each of their faces and was given a nod of approval. 

Satisfied with their responses, Virgil turned around and walked up to the gate. His hand glowed purple again as he used his power to open it. He placed his hand at about six inches from the top of the gate and swiped it halfway down. Where he swiped a series of old, symbols appeared. For a moment nothing happened, then all of a sudden a huge screeching sound echoed through the air as the gate slowly made its way open. 

Nyx jumped off Virgil’s shoulder and ran her way through the manor courtyard. Virgil watched her for a second before he glanced back and then walked forward himself, leading the way towards the manor door. They walk through the courtyard being careful to avoid tripping over tangled weeds and broken stones on the pathway. Heading up the rotten steps, they make their way across the decrepit porch. Virgil walked to the door where Nyx was now sitting, turned around, and looked at the others. Using one hand he opened up the door.

“Welcome to the  ** _Darkscape Manor_ ** .”


	11. The Heart's Protection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Blood, Fighting, Swearing
> 
> There is a POV Change in the Chapter where it switches from Virgil's POV to Patton's POV. Pay attention for it so you don't get confused, I do have it indicated.
> 
> Now we're getting to the good stuff!

** _-Virgil----_ **

When the sides first entered the manor they all froze. Virgil was pretty sure that if any of the others had ever thought of what the manor might have looked like, they wouldn’t even come close. The manor hallway was dark. The walls were covered in an old grey wallpaper that was covered with cracks and tears dripping with a black oozing substance. The floor was dark wood. Hanging along the walls were paintings of various disturbing scenes. A thick dark fog filled the hallway making it almost impossible to see more than ten feet ahead of them.

After all the sides walked through the door it slammed shut, the sound echoing throughout the hallways of the house. If no one had known they were here yet, they most certainly did now. 

They walked down the hallway in silence, each trying to comprehend where they were. Just like when they had when they first entered the Darkscape, Virgil walked up front leading the way, Logan and Patton walked in the middle, and Roman watched the back. They traveled down a hallway that seemed to be endless.

After a bit of traveling through the manor, the sides hear something that makes them stop. From one of the doors to their left the sides heard a whimpering sound. Unsure of what it was, and against their better judgement, they walked towards the door the sound came from. Stopping outside the door, Virgil looked briefly between them before slowly opening the door.

The sides looked into the room that the whimpering had been coming from. A dim light emanated from an unknown source inside making the contents a little easier to see. It wasn’t a small room, but it wasn’t a very big room either. It looked as if it were a storage room. Boxes, crates, and furniture were everywhere covered in a thick layer of black dust. “Does anyone else get the strange feeling that we need to go into this room?” Roman questioned.

The three others looked at him and nodded their heads, it was strange, the minute they had opened the door the whimpering stopped but a strange feeling settled in the pits of their stomachs. “Virgil, I know you said that we should not enter any of the rooms due to possible dangers that might be present but perhaps this  _ feeling  _ that we all seem to have may be our intuition telling us that this room may contain some answers to what we seek.”

Virgil looked at Logan and took into consideration what he was saying. Thinking back, Virgil could not remember a time when a room in the manor had ‘pulled’ anyone towards it. Normally, the aura would frighten sides, creatures, and figments away. It made sense (most of what Logan said did). Virgil nodded hesitantly, “We can check it out, but _ only _ for a few minutes. We shouldn’t stay in one place too long or else something undesirable might catch up.”  Understanding his reluctance the others agreed that they would only spend a few minutes within the room.

Before they entered the room, Nyx jumped off Virgil's shoulders and moved herself onto a chair that happened to be in the hallway (don't question it). "Don't want to come into the room with us girl? Alright then, stay our here. We should only be a few moments." Virgil walked over and gave her head a quick scratch. After he was done with her he turned to the others, "Let's get this room over with." Walking over Virgil grabbed the handle and opened the door for them to enter.

This ended up being a mistake. The minute Roman (who had been the last one to enter) walked through the doorway, the door slammed shut and locked itself. “Guys! The doors locked! I can’t get it open!”.The others turned around in panic as Roman tried desperately to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. 

Within a second the whimpering sound from earlier started up again. It echoed from all around them, shortly though it turned from whimpering, to sinister laughter. All around them the black dust started shifting and combining, creating terrifying dark creatures.

Virgil pushed Logan and Patton behind him as he summoned his abilities, his purple aura creating shadows on the creatures' varying shapes. Roman moved to the other side and pulled out his katana, he didn’t know what he would be able to do but he certainly wasn’t going to make Virgil fight these things on his own. Together the four of them stood and watched the creatures. At first they seemed to only sit there and watch the sides but soon, they attacked.

** _-Patton---_ **

Patton watched in terror as Virgil and Roman worked on protecting them. When the creatures started forming Virgil had grabbed his arm and pulled him behind his back. Logan had followed as he probably saw that at that moment he would be more of a problem than a help to Virgil. Roman moved forward ahead of them as well, Virgil looked as if he were about to argue but decided better of it (knowing they stood a better chance with two of them fighting instead of just him).

Patton watched as the battle unfolded. The creatures advanced quickly, thankfully Roman and Virgil were fast in their response.To his left he watched Roman strike his katana out, slash after slash, at the creatures. His blade would slice through them causing their forms to disintegrate only for the remains to combine with a different creature moments later.

Virgil was fighting hard as well. Patton didn’t know Virgil knew hand-to-hand combat, but he seemed to be really good as his glowing hands punched straight through another creature and caused it to explode with a purple blast. After one creature was gone he’d swipe his hand through the air causing a purple surge to forge out and take out another three creatures to the right.

As the battle carried on both Virgil and Roman did the best they could to stand their ground, but the more they fought, the more creatures (bigger creatures) came. Patton felt helpless. He and Logan couldn’t do anything more than watch and continue stepping back as the monsters advanced on them. The laughter now reverberated in the air as if already indicating its victory against them.

At some point during the battle a creature got a lucky shot at Virgil and punched him hard in the chest. Virgil stumbled back and fell to the ground with a groan of pain. Virgil’s groan caught Roman’s attention for a brief second but that it was all it took for one of the creatures to avoid the swing of Roman’s sword and slash out with its claws at Roman’s arm. Roman cried out and nearly dropped his katana as the claws ripped right through his suit jacket and into his arm. His hand shot up but it barely stopped the flow of blood that poured from his wound.

Roman stepped away from another strike and as best he could sliced upwards separating the creatures claws from its arm, and on the slice down split the creature in two. Logan and rushed forward to help Virgil stand before another creature could take advantage of the situation. Patton watched, fear building in him as the situation looked hopeless.

Patton held on to what little faith he had left. They had nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. They were literally backed up against a wall. He started looking around the room for anything he could use to help out when suddenly he heard a ringing. He whipped his head around to where the ringing was coming from and sitting on a small end table, was a tiny chest. 

Patton couldn't make out many details on the chest, but he could see that the part where the two halves meet was glowing. Patton didn’t know why but he felt a pull towards the chest. Glancing between his friends he tried to see if any of them felt the pull as well, but he seemed to be the only one. He knew it wasn’t a very smart idea but if it somehow helped, he was going to take the chance. Patton waited for the right moment. He watched Roman swing down through another creature and the second it disintegrated… He ran.

Patton made a run for the chest. He heard Logan yell his name and felt his grip loosely on the back of his shirt before he pulled away and moved forward. He ducked under another one of Roman’s swings and quickly sidestepped a creature that threw a claw at him. Patton dodged his way as fast as he could over to the tiny chest. Did he know how he was doing it? No. Was he going to stop and try to figure it out? No, he’d save that for Logan.

Patton finally made it to the chest. Now that he was standing next to it, the pull was stronger than ever. Patton didn’t have time to think as he felt the creatures breathing down his neck as they advanced toward him. He quickly opened the chest to find that the only thing that it held were two silver bands. He could almost hear a voice in his head telling him to put them on. 

What felt like minutes to Patton, in reality was only a few seconds. He heard his friends yelling his name. Razor claws came down towards his back. Patton quickly put the bands on. The moment the bands were secured on his wrist he was surrounded by a bright blue light.

Patton was having a complete out of body experience. He could feel his body moving and the power flow through him, but it was like he was watching himself act, his body on autopilot.

The bright blue light surrounded Patton and burst out in waves. Patton stood up and watched as the dark creatures back away in terror. Their screams filled the air as each new wave surged from him. Patton held his hands out in front of him and watched a blue orb of energy formed in his palms.

Once he felt that the orb was adequate, he switched his hands so that his palms were pointed towards the creatures. Spreading his arms apart he watched as the big orb separated into a bunch of smaller ones. Bringing his hands back together caused the orbs to burst outwards and towards the creatures. As the orbs made impact, they passed straight through each of the creatures, causing them to disintegrate, and moved onto the next one. This time when the creatures were destroyed, their remains blew away with the nonexistent wind.

Within minutes all the dark creatures were done and the only ones left in the room were the four sides. One last burst of light and Patton finally felt like he was in control of his body. He fell forward onto his hands and knees and took a minute to breathe. He heard footsteps running and looked up to see the others quickly making their way towards him. 

He barely had time to sit up before he was tackled backwards by Roman and Virgil. Patton laughed as he felt the two sides squeeze him tightly, he wasn’t used to this kind of affection from either of them, but he could be. He reached his arms up and did his best to return the hug.

Patton turned his head and saw Logan exhale a sigh of relief as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Too soon, both Roman and Virgil let go of Patton and helped him up. Virgil looked exhausted (probably because he hasn’t had to defend himself like this for a while). Logan looked agitated and Roman looked tired as well as he still held a hand over his injury.  _ Thank god that was the only major injury that seemed to happen. _

Logan was the first to speak, “What were you thinking Patton!?” It startled Patton how upset he was. Patton looked at the others’ faces and saw the same emotions displayed on their faces that were swimming in Logan’s eyes. “Out of all of us, you were the last one I would expect to do something so reckless!”.

Without skipping a beat Virgil jumped in with a smirk, “You had us all worried Patton. Besides, being reckless is Roman’s job.”

“Yeah... Hey!”, Roman poked Virgil in the side with his good hand the minute he recognized the jab that was aimed at him. This caused all of them to laugh and the tense atmosphere lightened up a bit. Patton watched as Roman winced when he accidently shifted his injured arm too much.

Patton stepped forward and looked at Roman, “Hey kiddo, can you take off your jacket so I can take a look at your arm?” Roman looked slightly confused, but did as he was asked. Roman winced as he was taking off his suit jacket, underneath he had on a white t-shirt. Patton looked at the gashes and grimaced. Without really thinking he raised his hands and placed them over Roman’s injury. Within seconds, a light, blue aura appeared on his hands and he watched in awe as his arm started to heal and the blood faded away.

Patton looked up and saw the same awe he felt mirrored on each of the other sides’ faces. “ How did you do that?!” Roman exclaimed. After the gashes were gone, he drew his arm away and turned it over, looking in amazement. He wiped the blood off his hand and touched his arm still not quite believing what he was seeing. “How did you do any of that?”

All eyes were on him now. Honestly, he had no idea. He didn’t understand how he was able to do it, but he was. “I’m going to be honest with you Ro… I have no idea. While you guys were fighting, I was feeling panicked that things were going to end badly. I was looking around for anything I could use to help out when that chest called out to me.”

He looked down at the bands on his wrist and then over at the chest which they had been in. Walking over he picked up the chest. Now that he had the chance to look at it, it was just a plain box. He felt the others draw near as he opened the lid on the chest. Looking at the bottom there was writing, reading it outloud it said “Healer and Protector. Don these bands and become the guiding light. The first of the guardians to be found”

Immediately, the room was filled with a blinding light. Each of the sides had to take a moment for their eyes to adjust. They all looked around at the room they were trapped in, but eventually all eyes landed on the same place. 

Hanging on the wall above the doorway, where it hadn’t been before, was a painting. In this painting was a figure in a pale, blue robe holding their hands out towards them. The painting was almost identical to the one that the book Logan found contained, except this one the figures hood was down and the figure looked quite similar to Patton.

“Woah! Patton it’s you!” Roman exclaimed. He looked like a child in a museum as he stood under the painting, pointing up at it as if the others weren’t already looking at it. Logan moved closer to take a look while Patton and Virgil stayed back. 

“Guys?”Everyone turned to look at Virgil as he spoke. “I know we all probably have a lot of questions, but I really would rather  _ not  _ stay in this room any longer.”

“I would agree with you, Virgil. But, if you would remember, the last time we checked the door had been locked.” Logan stated as the three of them watched Virgil walk towards the door. They watched as Virgil reached out and grabbed ahold of the door handle, jiggled it, and realized it still wouldn’t open. Agitated, the saw Virgil summon his power once more and threw a punch towards the door. Slamming his fist into the door, they jumped as the door exploded into pieces.

Stepping aside, Virgil bowed slightly and gestured out the door. “Shall we?” The four sides were filled with a temporary feeling of relief as they finally stepped out of the room into the hallway. 

Lounging outside the room on the same chair they left her on, was Nyx. She looked as if she had been resting peacefully while they had been trapped in the room. Nyx sat up and stretched as the sides approached her. Virgil reached out and lightly flicked Nyx’s head, causing her to bat at him with her paw. “Shitty cat. Probably knew that the room was a trap and decided you’d rather nap than be in there with us, huh?” Nyx jumped down and rubbed herself along Virgil’s legs.

After receiving an affectionate chuckle and a few pets, Nyx walked over and jumped up on Patton’s shoulders. Patton smiled and reached up to scratch her head. He rubbed his face lightly into her fur as she started to pur (he was silently thankful that he was only allergic to real cats and not ‘imaginary’ ones).

“Alright, now that that mess is over with. Let’s continue on with this nightmare.” They all agreed and the five of them continued on their way through the manor, waiting for the next ‘fun’ event to come to pass.


	12. Feelings and Theories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey here's the nest chapter! This one may feel like a slight filler chapter so I apologize about that. The information in this one was going to be included in the next chapter coming out, but I felt it did better as a chapter on its own. We also get to see some different interaction among the characters in the story. Don't worry, I'm hard at work on the next chapter and we should soon be back to our regularly scheduled program!
> 
> Also, I wanted to do a quick message for Canadiantardis,  
Thanks for your comments that you have been leaving me! I'm still learning how to use Ao3 and only recently learned about the inbox. I've seen your messages and appreciate your support for the story.
> 
> Enjoy this new chapter and see you guys again soon!

After they had exited the room, the sides were once again walking through the endless hallways of the Darkscape manor. As they were walking, Virgil watched as Roman took a quick step forward, stopping the other three in their tracks. Roman quickly turned his attention to Patton, “Okay, I have to know. Patton... How did you know how to use those abilities?” 

Patton jumped a bit before taking a second to process what Roman had asked, reaching up to scratch Nyx’s head (she was still resting on his shoulders) with a sigh, he responded. “I didn’t, it was a feeling I had.” The others looked at him in surprise.

“A  _ feeling _ ?” Logan asked incredulously. “You mean to tell us that you didn’t actually know what you were doing, you trusted a  _ feeling _ ?”

“Yes, Logan, a feeling. I trusted these bracelets and my gut and let the  _ feeling  _ take over.” Patton responded quietly, rubbing one of the bracelets that now rested on his arms. “It may sound odd… I don’t even fully understand it… but I trusted it and it helped me save you guys. That’s all I wanted to do. I wanted to protect my family, the people I care most about.” He looked up at Logan with a sheepish grin. 

Virgil dipped his head to the side to help hide the small smile that made its way on his face as he saw a slight blush form on Logan’s face. It didn’t happen often with Logan, but they each had their own ways of making him blush (Patton had a particular skill for it). From where he turned his head, he could see that Roman had a smile on his face too. 

With a chuckle, Virgil responded, “Though a  _ feeling  _ is an interesting way to describe it, I would agree with Patton. Whenever I would use my abilities, now and in the past, it was always just something that I was able to do. An instinct I guess you could say.”

“Well I guess that makes sense... What exactly are your abilities anyways?” Roman questioned. “We have an idea about Patton’s abilities, but not yours.” Logan and Patton gave him a questioning look as well.

Virgil felt himself shrink, shakily he said “Don’t worry too much about that. If we’re lucky I won’t have to use too many of my abilities.” The others noticed him tense.

Hoping to help lessen Virgil’s nerves, Roman rested his hands on his hips giving Virgil a look. “When has luck ever been on our side in these situations?” It made him happy to see Virgil’s shoulders loosen just a bit as the others laughed a little. Feeling satisfied, they continued walking mulling over this new information. 

As they continued forward Virgil and Logan found themselves moving forward, walking next to each other. Virgil had quite a bit on his mind but at some point he turned his eyes towards Logan. When Logan noticed Virgil’s stare he raised in eyebrow and asked a silent question  _ ‘Are you doing okay?’ _

Virgil took a second before giving a slight shrug and looking up towards the invisible ceiling of the manor,  _ ‘I think I’m doing okay. I have a lot on my mind.’  _ Logan furrowed his eyebrows and slightly cocked his head to the side. ‘ _ Anything in particular that I might be of assistance?’ _

Virgil tilted his head backwards towards where Patton and Roman had started quietly talking and then looked down at the bag that rested at Logan’s side. ‘ _ Just thinking about Patton’s new abilities and how it’s making the story more real.’  _ Logan nodded his head in response. 

Reaching down, Logan tapped the edge of the book and tilted his head back towards the other two. ‘ _ Do you want to tell Roman and Patton? I think it’s becoming necessary for them to know.’  _ Virgil frowned and shook his head ‘ _ No _ ’ in response.

While Virgil and Logan were conversing, Roman and Patton’s conversation halted as they both noticed that Virgil and Logan had shifted ahead of them and had started having a silent conversation with each other. After it became clear that neither of the two were planning on including them, Roman got annoyed “What aren’t you guys telling us?”

Both Logan and Virgil startled upon hearing Roman’s outburst. Virgil stared at Roman wide-eyed barely managing to stutter out a “What?” in response.

Logan who recovered much quicker than Virgil (not that anyone could tell that he was startled in the first place) answered “We aren’t hiding anything.” 

Roman’s eye twitched as he angrily responded, “Bullshit, either you two are having a romantic moment with all the eye contact or you two are having one of those silent conversations that you have when you don’t want Patton or I to worry.” Virgil shared a side glance with Logan. This provided enough evidence for Roman to continue, “I may not be the logical side but I can be observant too. I know you guys almost as well as I know myself, I  _ know  _ something is up that you aren’t telling us.” Roman finished off with a huff, crossing his arms.

Patton walked up beside Roman and nodded his head in agreement, confirming Roman’s observation. “We appreciate your concerns kiddos… but you keeping secrets from us doesn’t help anything. We need to be honest with each other or else it may not end well for any of us.”

With one last defeated look between the two, Logan and Virgil gave in and explained their theory about the connection between Virgil’s dream, Logan’s book, and their current situation (leaving out the part about the dark figure).

When they had finished their explanation, both Patton and Roman had looks on their faces that were a mix between surprise and curiosity. “So you think that each of us might be one of the ‘guardians’ that the book mentions?” Patton asks, looking between both Logan and Virgil.

“And if that’s the case… Who’s the villain in this whole scenario? What do you think this big sacrifice is that one of us is going to make? Who do you think are the ‘friends turning on friends’ that it speaks of?” Roman’s questions kept going on and on. One of the things about Roman that was similar to his brother (that he would never admit himself) was that he rambled when he was excited or nervous (though his rambling usually made more sense than Remus’).

“Do you think Remus or Deceit have any part of this story?” The last question from Patton caused everyone to go momentarily silent in thought. 

Virgil put his hands out to stop both Patton and Roman, “Look guys it's only a theory. I’m pretty sure the two of them are just off causing trouble in some unsupervised part of the Mindscape. Hell, I even bet they’ve heard that we’re not at the mind palace and are there causing trouble right now while we’re away.” Even as Virgil stated this, he knew that he wasn’t the only one who doubted his words.


	13. The Mind's Power

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone, I'm back again with another chapter!
> 
> I'm gonna be honest with you guys, this has been one of the hardest chapters I've had to write yet just because I didn't really know what I wanted to happen. Now that the chapter is finally finished I can say that not only am I really happy with how this chapter turned out, but its the chapter I'm most proud of so far! 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

After they had finished with their conversation they had continued walking, it didn’t take much longer till they came up to an archway that rested in the manor walk. Virgil looked at the others before slowly making his way towards the archway to see what lay beyond it. What he saw made him stop.

“Woah!” Roman had come up behind Virgil and had rested his head on his shoulder to look into the room. Logan stood next to Virgil and Patton was peeking from behind him. What they were looking at was what looked to be a darker version of the Archives of Knowledge. Roman raised an eyebrow, “Everyone else is seeing this too right? This looks almost exactly like the Archives back home, maybe a little darker.”

“You’re right about that Roman.” Eyes turned to Virgil as he continued, “I guess you can call these the Dark Archives, they exist in the Darkscape manor as a counterpart to the Archives of Knowledge that exist in the Mindscape. Out of everywhere in the two mind regions, the two Archives are the most closely related besides the Field for Wandering Thoughts and the Forest for Unwanted Thoughts (that’s the name of the forest they entered into). It’s even believed that due to the close link between the two, that there might even be an entrance between the two sides here as well.”

The others took in this information while they looked around the Dark Archives. Endless, rotting bookshelves lied in rows and lined the walls of the two layered room. Broken and ratty furniture was tossed around and in the center of the room rested a destroyed fireplace. Though the room had some torches lining the wall, there was barely any light emitting through it. 

“My guess this is the next room we are supposed to be heading into. Logan… Looks like this is your time to shine.” Roman looked over at Logan and patted his shoulder with a goofy smile on his face. Logan gave Roman a bored expression as he stared into the room (though he had a feeling that Roman was probably right).

As the sides entered the room (Nyx once again jumping off to chill out in the hallway) they stared around in wonder. They walked around staring at the various bookcases, they had to be careful where they were walking as there were books and debris everywhere along the floor. As they walked farther into the room they noticed something hanging above the fireplace, a painting hanging over the fireplace.

Walking forward to take a closer look, they noticed that it looked similar to the one in Logan’s book, but not quite. The figure in the book wore a navy blue robe and held their book open as glowing words spiralled around them. The figure in this painting wore a greyish robe, they carried a book but it was closed and was tucked under their arm. Both figures had a hood covering their faces.

“Isn’t there supposed to be color in this painting? I may not have had a lot of time to look at the picture in the old book Logan found, but I’m pretty sure that the robe is supposed to be navy blue and there are supposed to be blue words floating in the air.” As Roman was speaking, Logan had reached into his bag and pulled out said book. Flipping it open to the page that held the story of the guardians (as they now knew them as), they all startled when they saw the page. “What’s going on?”

This was the first time that they had opened the book since entering the Darkscape and apparently it affected the book almost as much as it affected them. On the page with the guardians, the only one that now had color was the one they knew to associate with Patton. The other figures had gone black and grey. The navy guardian matched the one in the painting above the ruined fireplace, book closed with hands down. The red guardian’s sword was sheathed and the dragon had curled, almost as if it was asleep. The purple guardian’s hands were still out but it seemed that the scales they held were tipping in the moon’s favor.

Logan looked at the book in curiosity, books don’t just change at whim, it wasn’t normal. Though, he was aware that nothing was normal about the situation that they were currently in. Studying the picture Logan tried to figure out what they were supposed to be doing here in this dark version of the Archives. What had helped them in the last room that they had entered? Looking around the page, his eyes moved to the pale blue guardian and they locked onto the bracelets. “Of course!”

The others jumped from Logan’s outburst. They watched as Logan started to look around the room at each of the different bookshelves. Finally, Patton’s curiosity got the best of him, “Of course, what, Logan?” 

Logan looked at Patton with a glint in his eye. “We need to find the book.”

Roman stared at Logan in confusion, “Uh… I hate to state the obvious Logan, but we are surrounded by books.” Logan groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, carefully balancing the open book in his other hand.

“Roman, when we were in the last room, what did Patton find that allowed him to defeat the dark creatures as well as identify him as one of the guardians?”

“Wasn’t it the bracelets he’s wearing now?” Roman asked hesitantly.

“Exactly, Roman! If you look at each of the figures on the page, they each are holding an object that holds some importance to their character. Patton has the bracelets and the guardian that’s shown in the painting, there, has a book.” As he talked, Logan pointed to each of the objects that held significance to each of the guardians. “If my hypothesis is correct, we need to find the book that this guardian is holding.”

Virgil looked at Logan, “And… How do you suggest we find this  _ magical  _ book? We are literally in the middle of an almost infinite library of  _ books _ ! From what I can tell from the image of the guardian as well as what I remember from both the picture back at the mind palace and in my dream, there really isn’t any discernible characteristics that would make it easy to find.”

Logan listened to Virgil and could see the concerned looks on the other faces as well. He knew it was a long shot, but he had to trust his instinct on this one. 

“If anything, I think Logan will be the one to find the book.” Everyone’s eyes turned to Patton. “If we are going to continue on with this idea that ‘we are the guardians from the story’ then it only makes sense that when it comes to knowledge, Lo is our guy. He’ll be the one the book calls out to just like the bracelets called out to me!”

Roman smirked and walked over to Logan, throwing an arm over his shoulder he said “Yeah, Logan. Let’s search around and see if you get a  _ feeling  _ from any of these books.”

Virgil chuckled as Logan pointedly glared at Roman’s reference to Patton’s earlier statement about his guardian item. “I agree with Patton and Roman.” Everyone’s eyes turned to him as he continued. He turned around in a circle and opened his arms wide. “Let’s see if any of these books  _ feel _ right to you, Logan.” Everyone laughed as Logan huffed at the teasing from his companions. 

Either way, they started to look through the bookcases to see if they could find anything. They had started looking through the books and were astonished by the variety of books they were finding. 

Roman ran his finger along the various bindings and read each of the titles. “There are so many different types of titles here. There’s at least twenty books in this section alone that have titles that deal with murder (murder mysteries, murder stories, murder theories). There’s the complete collection of Brothers Grimm fairy tales along that bookshelf. There’s also books with titles such as  Childhood Nightmares and  Tales of the Monster Under the Bed .”

Logan and Patton both started looking closer at the titles of the different books. They found so many books that had to deal with fears, bad experiences, and topics of darker themes. Roman, Logan, and Patton were amazed how vast the library and its contents were. 

There was something that they were confused about, Patton pulled a really thin book out from the shelf and looked it over. “ Family Vacation, Summer 2002… What’s this doing here? From what I remember this was a great vacation, we had a lot of fun!”

Roman and Logan walked up behind Patton, gently Roman removed the book from Patton’s hand and opened it and started skimming through the pages. “The vacation isn’t even complete? All that’s contained are what I’m guessing are negative thoughts and embarrassing moments. Virgil, what's this about?” 

Virgil reached over to a bookcase and pulled a book off a shelf. He looked sadly at the book and turned it for the others to see, the title of the book was  Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms for your Anxiety . “What I need you guys to remember is that the Mindscape and the Darkscape are two halves of a whole. They mirror each other. There are two sides to every story. For every good thing that happens, some negative pieces get stored away or forgotten here. Because Thomas is a good person, all this information is in disrepair though there is some semblance of order. It may be the Darkscape but not everything that develops or is stored here is bad... Just doesn’t play a crucial, positive, or impactful part of his life, it still is just as important to who Thomas is.”

The three sides watched as Virgil started to shake, as he talked he started to stare off. Roman and Patton looked at each other, they hadn’t meant any harm with their questions, but they forgot that Virgil had a tendency to take some things differently than they intend for him to. 

Patton walked over to Virgil and took the book from his hand. He gently tucked the book back into a space on the bookshelf and looked back at Virgil. It hurt him to see so much pain on Virgil’s face, without even having to think about it, he reached forward and pulled him into a hug. Virgil was caught off guard for a second before accepting the hug, tucking his head into the crook of Patton’s neck. 

Roman lowered his head. Logan walked and stood next to him, placing a gentle hand on his arm. He knew that both of them were having negative feelings about the effect of their words. He knew they meant no harm, he was positive Virgil knew that as well. Roman reached up and lightly placed his hand over Logan’s. 

As they were waiting for Virgil to calm down, Logan looked over towards the fireplace and felt himself stiffen. Forming from dark dust laying around the room, an almost humanoid looking dark creature had started forming. Turning his head towards the entrance to the library he was dismayed to observe that the archway had vanished as well. “ I hate to convey unfavorable information, but it looks like we have company and our outlet for escape seems to have disappeared.”

Virgil and Patton separated quickly, eyes looking towards the exit before turning to focus on the new entity in the room. The four sides watched as the last little bit of the creature formed, when it was finally all together it let a terrifying howl before it started its attack.

The dark creature attacked from near the fireplace, Patton used his light energy (the source of his abilities) to create a shield to protect them from flying objects and dark orbs that it was sending their way. He was unsure of how he knew how to do that, but he trusted his instinct. The creature was keeping it’s distance.

The four sides stood behind Patton’s shield trying to figure out what their plan of attack would be. Roman stood behind Patton, grip tight on his sword. “What are we supposed to do? That thing is not letting any of us get near it, unless we can get close I can’t attack. Virgil! Why don’t you just do your purple, wave, thing at it?”

Virgil gave Roman a pointed look before they all flinched as a chair came flying towards them, shattering as it came into contact with Patton’s shield. “Sorry to burst your bubble Princey, but that ability is a close range attack which, as you’ve pointed out, is useless at this moment.”

Logan looked at Roman and Virgil arguing before turning his attention back to Patton, he could tell that Patton wasn’t going to be able to withstand the onslaught much longer with the continued furosity of this creatures attack.

“Gentlemen, We need to find a way to advance closer to the creature. I believe the best course of action for us to take is to move out of plain sight. We should most likely move soon as I observe that Patton is not going to be able to maintain the shield for much longer.” Just as Logan had said this, the creature launched an entire bookcase (books and all) towards them. As the bookcase came into contact with the shield, the shield cracked and shattered. With nothing stopping it, the bookcase continued forward crashing into the four sides and sending them all hurdling back.

They heard a terrifying growl as they dazedly stumbled to their feet. Roman was the first up as he was the fasted to react to a end table hurtling their way, pulling his sword from his sheath, he slashed out and split the table in two. Virgil was the next to jump in front as dark orbs raced forward, summoning his power, he batted them away sending them to the side to blow up an unexpectant bookcase.

Logan was kneeled next to Patton who he could tell was drained. His skin was pale and as the person in front of them at the time of contact with the bookcase, he took the brunt of the impact. There didn’t seem to be anything broken or fractured (the shield did slow down the speed of the bookcase), but Logan was positive that he was going to be bruised and sore when everything was said and done.

Lightly wrapping Patton’s arm around his shoulder, he helped him stand as best he could before yelling to Roman and Virgil, “Retreat behind the remaining bookcases, we can’t stay out in the open and expect to win!” Then he, as quickly as he could, moved Patton to the side behind some of the shelves. He heard one last boom of something being broken before hearing footsteps bolt in the other direction.

There was no way Patton was going to be participating further in this fight, Logan looked around and found a pile of fallen bookshelves from an earlier blast. Figuring this was the best option, he moved Patton to rest behind it and out of sight. As he started to walk back towards the ‘battlefield’ he heard a groan and felt something grab his hand, he looked down and caught the concerned eyes of Patton.

“Don’t worry about me, Patton. I am capable of taking care of myself, I know my limits. You and I both know that even if Virgil or Roman are able to advance on that creature, they won’t be able to defeat it. The only  _ viable  _ option we have is if I find that book, it may be the only thing capable of vanquishing it.”

Patton still held that worried look in his eyes, but he slowly let go of Logan’s hand, allowing him to proceed onto their previous goal before the dark creature formed. Now the only problem was that Logan was still unsure of what he was searching for. From beyond the bookshelves he hears another blast, something shatter, and someone groan, before more footsteps could be heard and a growl reverberate through the archives. 

Logan knew then that he was running out of time and started to look around again. This is the most emotional he has felt in a long time. Sure he’s gotten into heated arguments and debates where his emotions had run a little higher than he was comfortable with. There were also plenty of instances where indescribable emotions would come about while he interacted with the others. 

This was a different sort of emotional burst from any previous situations he had encountered before. He identified these emotions as fear and concern. His concern didn’t lie with the pursuit of being right, proving a point, or the search of information. His concern lay with the present danger that he and his companions were facing.

Logan started to frantically look through the shelves as he sensed the creature draw closer to his location.  _ Where is that book?! It has to be the answer. There is no other logical possibility. If I can’t find that book there is no hope of us winning this battle. _

Logan was losing hope, which was a strange thing for him. He had moved to another bookcase to start looking. As he was pulling a book from a shelf, the entire bookcase started to shake before it was lifted off the ground and thrown in the opposite direction. “Shit” 

The creature hadn’t been facing him but as he whispered that one word, but that was all it took for it to turn around to face him. Logan froze. There was nothing between him and the monster. In his peripherals he could see Roman and Virgil peek out from behind a pile of debris about twenty feet away, even if they started towards him, there was no way that they would make it before the creature striked. 

Logan watched in fear as two large dark orbs started to form in the creature's hands, it raised the orbs, and hurtled them towards Logan. Roman, Patton, and Virgil watched as the orbs made contact with Logan’s location and exploded. Patton let out a cry as Virgil held Roman back from running forward. The only thing left in the spot was a crater and tattered messenger bag.

They sides heard a howl of laughter from the creature as it slowly advanced to admire the damage it had caused. Barely a second later a dark blue shimmer appears above the crater. Everyone watched in shock as from the shimmer, out stepped Logan, intact and unharmed.

Patton started to silently cry in relief and Roman and Virgil cheered from a distance. The creature roared in rage as it realised that it’s target was still alive.

Logan stared at the creature as he held the old story book in his hands. The old book started to glow navy, blue and with a smirk, Logan opened its pages and bright words burst out. Logan now understood what Patton and Virgil meant when they said it was an instinctual feeling. He felt as if he were observing the fight rather than participating in it himself.

The creature roared again, using its abilities it lifted up a broken couch and threw it at him. Logan let go of the book, it seemed to float in the air in front of him. When the couch got within a certain distance, Logan raised his hand and stopped it midair before waving it off to the side.  _ Telekinesis, interesting _ . The creature picked up two more chairs and tossed them in his direction, Logan simply closed the glowing book and teleported to a different location.

From its erratic movements he could tell the creature was frustrated and was reaching its end point. He needed to finish this and finish it now before it escalated any further. Opening the book again, Logan watched in amazement as the words rotated around him.  _ Now it's time to see the power that words hold.  _

Muttering under his breath, Logan summoned walls around him and the creature separating them from the others. The creature howled and appeared to go into endgame mode. Dark particles formed in the air of the contained area and started whirling and thrashing everywhere. 

Logan continued muttering and as the particles came closer, they were deflected away. Logan started to advance closer. The creature was cornered. It started throwing whatever furniture and debris that it could get within the boundaries and hurtling it toward Logan. 

Logan moved forward unfazed. Particles and small objects flew towards him and were deflected away. An armchair came at him from the side and he summoned a wall, blocking it from hitting him. 

The creature started backing up until it no longer could. When Logan drew close to it, it made one final attack by striking at him itself. It tried to lunge forward towards Logan, then it froze… Literally.

Starting at the creatures feet, ice was building up its form. The creature struggled and squirmed but it couldn’t break loose, it only seemed to make the ice grow faster. The ice had reached the creatures chest area and the creature reached forward still trying to grab at Logan. It’s chest, arms, and neck froze. With a final cry the last thing to freeze over was its head.

Logan finally stopped muttering and lowered his arms. The walls around them lowered and as they did he saw his friends waiting on the other side. They rushed forward the minute they could. Patton reached Logan first giving him a complete once over. “Patton, you should be resting. You were pretty drained from maintaining your shield earlier.”

Patton stopped for a second, then continued looking him over. “Apparently, with this whole healing thing that I can do, it also means that my own self-healing has increased as well. I’m still sore and will most definitely have a couple bruises, but I’m much better than I was ten minutes ago.” Patton gave him a smile as he was explaining.

Logan moved his eyes from Patton, to Roman and Virgil. “Are you two doing alright? You two had taken quite some damage from your fight?” 

Roman and Virgil looked at each other before looking back at Logan. Roman gave a smug smile before responding, “What was that I heard? Did Logan just express  _ concern  _ over our wellbeing? You must have hit your head during your fight to do something like that.” Virgil elbowed him in the ribs as Logan gave him a confused look. 

Virgil gave Roman a quick glare before answering Logan, “We’re doing fine, Patton healed us up while you were fighting the creature.

Logan felt relief wash over him knowing that his friends were doing alright, he had made it just in time. “I’m glad that everyone is doing adequately. Now, let’s finish up so…” Logan droned off as he collapsed. Patton caught him before he hit the ground. “Logan!”

Roman rushed forward to help Patton with the extra weight as Virgil looked around and found an intact chair pillow. Together they laid him on the floor. Patton felt Logan’s head as he laid passed out on the floor, “What happened? Do you think he’ll be okay?”

Virgil placed a hand on Patton’s shoulder. “I think he just used a little too much of his new abilities. He probably just needs to rest for a bit and I’m sure he’ll be good as new.”

Patton gave a small smile as the other two got comfortable, “Guess he really didn’t know his limits.” 

The three sides sat next to their friend and waited for him to wake. Patton had spent a few minutes ‘healing’ Logan to try and help the flow and regeneration of his energy. Virgil looked to be in thought and Roman at some point went and picked up a book (a murder mystery) off the floor to read. It was hard to tell how long they waited since none of them had thought to bring a watch with them. They had no idea how long they had been in the manor either, Virgil had mentioned that time moves differently within the Darkscape.

Eventually, they heard a groan come from Logan, this caused the others to perk up a bit as they turned their attention towards him. With another groan they watched as Logan opened his eyes and looked around the room in confusion. It took Patton a moment before he remembered he took Logan’s glasses off when they laid him down. He handed him his glasses and helped him into a sitting position. 

Roman had moved beside Logan to support his back and Virgil moved to sit next to Patton. Logan took a second to gather his thoughts before asking, “What happened? Why are we currently positioned on the floor?” The others sighed in relief that Logan seemed to be okay.

“After your battle with the dark creature you had collapsed. We didn’t know the extent of your injuries so we decided to let you rest. We were pretty sure that it was just exhaustion from using too much energy.” Virgil explained to him.

“We’re glad you’re okay, Logan. What you did to that creature was fantastic! I didn’t know you knew how to fight like that.” Roman exclaimed.

“I didn’t either. I guess that due to the increasing concern that I felt for your wellbeing, I trusted my instinct and was able to summon the abilities needed in order to protect you.”

“Aw!” Both Patton and Roman gushed while Virgil chuckled at his admission. “Since we all already know about the origin of your abilities, care to share with the class what exactly your abilities are, teach?

Logan gave a small smile from hearing the old nickname while he reached to the side where one of them had laid the old book. “It seems that I have some telekinetic ability. I also appear to have the capability to teleport, though it seems to be only short distances. Lastly, there seems to be some power connected to this book.”

The others watched as Logan opened the book and the glowing blue words appeared around them. “How exactly does the book work, Logan? There are many words in the English language, it seems a little excessive for them to be all contained in that book for you to use at will.” Virgil questioned while watching various words swirl around them.

“Excellent question, Virgil. There are roughly 170,000 words identified in the English dictionary as of 2019. Though that many exist, the words that appear before you, appear to be ones that lie within my power limit and are compatible with my capabilities and personality.”

Roman gawked, “Why do you know the number of words in a dictionary just off the top of your head? That also still doesn’t explain how it works? We use these words everyday. That’s a lot of power to use whenever you want.”

Logan chuckled affectionately, “Roman, if I need to remind you, facts and knowledge are my particular field of expertise. As for the range that the power encompasses, its actually quite limited. As stated before the words ‘at my disposal’ are those that are compatible with what I am able to do as a being connected to aspects of my personality. As for my usage of the ability, as you can tell, require for the book to be in my possession as well as open for the power to be used. It limits the effectiveness quite significantly.”

“Whatever the effectiveness of your abilities are, now we are all able to fight and defend each other. This quest just got a whole lot easier.” Everyone agreed with Roman as they stood and dusted themselves off. They looked rough from everything they had been through already, they knew that there was still more to come. 

They turned and noticed the archway into the archive had reappeared at the end. Slowly, they worked together across the debris of the battle. Once they made it the entrance, the others walked out into the hallway while Logan stopped and looked back into the mess that the archive was in now. He felt something in him, he didn’t know what it was but he knew it was telling him that he couldn’t just leave it in such a state of disrepair.

Logan reached into his new messenger bag (he created it after his last one got destroyed) and pulled out the old book. The others stopped in the hallway when they noticed the navy, blue light radiating from behind them as Logan opened it. Logan raised his hand and a few of the blue words started to glow brighter as he started muttering. They walked back towards Logan and saw what he was doing.

The Dark Archive was putting itself back together. The area that had been affected by the fighting was fixing itself. Bookcase and furniture were repairing themselves and moving back to their original places through the main area of the archive. Books flew from the floor back onto the shelves and the fireplace was repaired, a fire burning bright and warm. 

The Dark Archive looked better than when they had originally walked into it. As they looked around at Logan’s work their eyes turned to the painting hanging above the fireplace. The painting contained a figure in a navy, blue robe. Old book in hand with arm raised and glowing words surrounding them. Under the painting, engraved in a plaque, was written “ Seeker of Knowledge. Hold the book and speak the words of truth and guidance. The second guardian to be found.”

When Logan was finished putting back together the Dark Archive, he stumbled a little from using his power. The others were right behind him to hold him up. “Logan, why did you put it back together? What was the point of that?” Virgil asked as he helped to steady him.

Logan looked at Virgil and gave a genuine smile, “It may be the Dark Archive, but it still holds significance to Thomas.” Turning his gaze back into the library, “It’s still important to who he is and should be treated as such.” With that, he turned around and once again ushered his friends down the hallway towards their next destination.


	14. The Prince's Courage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! 
> 
> I don't think you know how happy I am to be able to get chapters out to you guys sooner than 2-3 weeks at a time. Here's a 'fun' chapter for you all to enjoy.
> 
> One little comment that I'm going to make is about the Dark Archives from last chapter. Some one had messaged me and was like "Why didn't you call them the Darckchives?". My answer, I was focused on writing the chapter. I didn't even think about that till after I had already posted the chapter and then I was like "Damn! That would have been great!" So from this chapter on I will be referring to them as the Darkchives because I love the name.
> 
> If you ever have questions or comments, please leave them! I will do my best to answer.
> 
> Anyways, hope you all enjoy the new chapter and I will see you again in the next one!   
(It's already in the process of being written)

After a short time more of walking (spare you the boring walk through hallway for the third time in a row), the four sides came upon a new room. As they were walking through the hallways they found a wooden door that was rotting and had vines growing from it, it looked very out of place on the normal grey and sludge covered walls. Figuring that it was a sign, they opened the door and walked through into the room.

This room was even more surprising than the last in just how expansive it was. The sides walked through the doorway and noticed that their entryway was the door of a house that was embedded into what looked like a never ending mountain side. They couldn’t see where the roof of the room was but they had a very good view of the area and village that laid before them. 

To the right of their view, the four sides saw what looked to be a dead field. The field went on far beyond what they could see. To the left of their view, sat a rather large looking cliff. The cliff laid off another mountain side and overlooked a lake in the middle of a plain. They couldn’t see what laid directly under the cliff. The lake looked murky and was surrounded by a grey, sandy beach and a creepy forest just beyond that.

Directly below them, straight ahead on a dirt path from the house, was what looked to be an old abandoned village. There couldn’t have been more than twenty buildings in the village including what looked to be a broken down church. There were paved roads that were cracked and torn apart. Weeds, vines, and various other dead looking plants appeared to be growing and seemed to have taken over the destroyed town. In the middle of the village square was an old, ruined fountain.

The four sides stood next to each other and took in the view. Virgil rested a hand on his hip and gestured at the area in front of them, “Nothing says ‘come find the next guardian’ like a creepy, abandoned village.”

“I would have to agree, Virgil. Though not exactly how I would have described the current situation at hand. I would concur with the observation that this area, since it's much too large to be called a room, is most likely the next location for which we will find the next guardian.” Logan stated.

Patton, Virgil, and Logan all turned their heads to look at Roman who was still admiring the view. Virgil being the closest to Roman, nudged him in the side with his elbow, startling him back into focus. “Huh? Sorry guys, I was paying attention. Location for the next guardian, right?” Roman relaxed as he saw the others nodding. He looked back out at the village. Crossing his arms over his chest, he asked his next question, “What exactly are we looking for here?”

Patton jumped forward and grabbed onto Roman’s arm, “We are looking for the sword that the guardian was holding!” He smiled at Roman while both Logan and Virgil nodded again.

“I’m assuming that, based on the fact that you all have your focus on me, that either you guys are  _ captivated _ by my stunning looks or I am supposed to be the guardian for this area.” Roman couldn’t tell if he was excited about the idea about being the hero of this room, or if he was terrified about what kind of situation would require him to be a hero. Roman was about to make a comment about his soon to be  _ heroic  _ actions, when a new, scary thought crossed his mind “What about the dragon that was behind the red guardian?”

“My guess that it was more for decoration, than anything else.” Logan took note of Roman’s worried tone as he was taking out his book. Logan opened the book and started turning the pages, noticing the confused looks on the other’s faces (probably from the fact that the glowing words didn’t appear). Opening the book to the page with the pictures of the guardians, Logan continued. “If you take notice of Patton's guardian, they have wings which in no way performed a critical role in his room. The dragon most likely presents the same scenario.”

“Whatever the danger, I’m sure you’ll be able to save us Roman!” Patton smiled encouragingly at Roman. Though Roman was sure that Patton was saying that more for his sake than anyone else’, it still helped calm his nerves tremendously. 

Smiling back at Patton, Roman did his signature pose, “Of course I can! What prince would I be if I couldn’t protect my friends.” With this statement, they decided to head down to the village and look around and see what they could find.

When they finally reached the village, they saw just how destroyed it really was. They watched their steps to avoid tripping over the cracked road and weeds. All the houses surrounding the town square were in various shapes of disrepair. Some had windows broken through, doors were busted in, there were even some buildings that were missing pieces of their walls. Trash and debris were scattered everywhere along the ground. From what they could tell there was nothing of value that could be found anywhere.

“So where do you think this sword is going to be? Also, do I actually have to use the sword? My katana works perfectly fine for me.” Roman asked this as he peered into a house through a hole in its wall. Patton stood next to him looking around the yard.

Logan and Virgil had moved around the fountain to look at the ruined church-like building. The building appeared to have partially exploded from the inside, out. The wall had collapsed on one side and a thorny vine had encompassed the break. The one part of the building that didn’t look destroyed was a stained glass window that was embedded into the small second story.

“Roman” Virgil looked at him as he and Patton walked to join them at the base of the building. “If either the storage room or the Darkchives were any indicator, the only way we will be able to defeat whatever obstacle this room has will probably only be with you using that sword.”

Roman stood beside Virgil and Patton staring at the window. Logan had moved forward to study the building for any possible entrance into the church. “I certainly hope that once I save the day, this window will get the colors it's supposed to rather than staying so  _ dull _ .” The others couldn’t help but agree. 

The stained glass window could be something amazing if it would just have some color. The window held the same picture as the book, no not with the reds and golds, but rather the greys and blacks. The figure’s hood was up and their sword was sheathed, the dragon lay dormant behind the guardian. “Where do you think the sword is? This room is massive! It could be anywhere.”

“I hypothesize the sword will appear when you need it most.” Logan readjusted his glasses while answering Roman.

Roman waved his hands exasperatedly in the air, causing Virgil and Patton to jump back to avoid getting hit, “So you want to just wait around for something to attack us for the sword to appear?!” Roman huffed as Logan responded back.

Patton continued looking around as Roman continued arguing back and forth with Logan’s logic. Though he wasn’t too much a fan of the facts, the fact was their items up to this point didn’t make themselves known till they were needed. 

Patton turned away from the building and walked back towards the fountain. He hadn’t given it much thought up to this point but now noticed that the base was carved with intricate designs. Patton leaned down and studied them. As his eyes were scanning the base, he noticed that there was a thin layer of black dust. Patton scrunched his eyebrows in concern, he jumped backwards when the dust started to move.

Patton let out a startled yelp as he noticed that black dust was starting to collect from everywhere.  _ Why do I have to be the one to notice the monster first? _ Patton watched in fear as the dust creature started to get larger and larger. The others turned at Patton’s yelp and stared in stunned silence as the creature formed.

It didn’t take long for the dark creature to be fully formed. The creature stood about twenty feet tall, shiny black scales covered its body. It had a tail that was half its length thrashing about behind it. Huge wings stretched out from its back as it raised its head high, breathing out white fire into the thickening air. “I thought you said we didn’t have to worry about a dragon!”

It took only a few seconds before the creature lashed out in attack. Roman ran forward and tackled Patton out of the way of the line of (literal) fire. Pulling him up he didn’t have time to check to make sure he was okay before the creature was above them, slashing down on them with his claws. Before Roman could react to protect them a huge wall of ice grew out of the ground blocking the dragon from attacking. Looking to the side, Roman saw Logan with his book wide open. Unfortunately, so did the dragon. 

Roman watched as the dragon breathed fire towards Logan and Virgil, causing the two of them to jump, in opposite directions, out of the way. Roman felt a surge of protectiveness flow through him and he ran at the dragon. Running out from behind the ice wall, Roman drew his katana and made his way towards it. Rolling quickly to the side to avoid another swipe of its claws, Roman lunged forward and stabbed his katana into the side of the dragon’s leg. The dragon reared back causing Roman to fly backwards, thankfully he had a grip on his katana so it came with him.

The battle continued on. Logan was having a hard time helping out because his book required him to stand still. He used his telekinesis to throw larger pieces of debris towards the dragon, the creature just batted them out of the way. Patton did what he could to help him out by shielding them, but the fire blasts and strikes wouldn’t allow him to keep his shields up for long. 

Roman and Virgil were doing their best (sword and purple energy respectfully) attacking as they could. They used the various buildings and debris as cover when they needed. Nothing seemed to be working against the dragon, it just wasn’t tiring. Unfortunately after everything they had been through up to this point, they were.

On one particular lucky shot the dragon got a good swipe in at Virgil and knocked him backwards into one of the houses in the village. Virgil curled in on himself as he hurdled into the house, smashing through the supports and causing the building to collapse on top of him. “Shit! Virgil!” Roman shouted worriedly as he watched him disappear into the rubble. “Patton! Logan! We need to help him!” With that shout, he slashed out at the dragon again.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw both the other sides race towards Virgil’s location. Roman’s heart filled with fear when he saw no movement from the destroyed house. The dragon turned its attention towards where Patton and Logan were running and started to move to attack them. Roman wasn’t going to let that happen.

To the side he saw a rather larger piece of glass, he quickly bent down and grabbed it roughly. He winced as he felt the sharp edges cut into his palm. Turning back towards the dragon, Roman yelled out a quick “HEY UGLY!” and once its attention was back on him, he threw the shard as hard as he could towards the creatures face. It hits its target, sinking into the dragon’s eye. The dragon let out an angered roar, all its attention now on Roman. 

Roman pulled his katana out and faced the furious dragon. From between its legs he could see Logan and Patton digging through the house rubble, Roman nearly let out a cry when he saw them finally pull Virgil out and he looked to be talking.  _ Thank god he’s okay! I need to keep this creatures' attention on me and away from them… How?! _

Roman dodged another wave of fire by ducking behind a broken wall, he could still feel the sting of the heat from the blast. Roman looked around and saw a possible solution lay beyond the village, towards the cliff.  _ It’s the only option I have. I need to give Patton time to heal Virgil. I need to get the dragon away. _

Without any further thought, Roman pushed off the wall and raced forward. The dragon spread its wings and finally took off from the ground to follow him. Roman made sure to yell to keep the creatures' attention on him.

It wasn’t his initial intention to run directly towards the cliffs edge. He meant to just run out of the village and lead the dragon out and away. He had a rash plan, he’ll admit that it was, but it seemed that the dragon had a plan too. Any time he would try to steer away from the cliff side, the dragon would send out a fire blast to knock him back in the cliff’s direction.

Roman had to stop himself abruptly before he ran off the cliff’s ledge. His blood ran cold as he looked over at the sheer drop that led down to nothing but sharp rocks protruding from the ground below.  _ This is not good _ … Roman turned around and saw the dragon land in front of him.  _ Shit, this is not good at all…i _

Roman pulled his katana out and stood ready for battle, it was now or never, if he fell off this cliff he wouldn’t make it out alive. The dragon creature reared in a display of victory, wings spread as it roared into the sky. It landed its front claws down onto the ground with a heavy thud. As it prepared its final attack.

From behind the dragon Roman saw Patton, Logan, and Virgil making their way towards him. Logan and Patton were basically holding most of Virgil’s weight as it looked like he was heavily limping on his left leg.  _ No! What are they doing? They shouldn’t be out here! _ Roman didn’t have much more time to think.

His eyes raised to meet with the opened mouth of the dragon. Roman watched with a heavy heart as the dragon powered up one final fire blast. Roman had nowhere to escape. Roman braced himself for the final blow,  _ Please be safe… Don’t forget about me.  _ The dragon let out a mighty roar as it released its blast. Roman watched as it burst forward at an almost painful speed. As the blast was about to make impact with him the cliff’s edge broke causing him to plummet downwards. 

“ROMAN!”


	15. A Hero's Transformation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> I was planning on waiting a couple days to post this chapter, but I was too excited to wait! I've had this chapter planned since I posted my first few chapters of the story months ago, I was just waiting for its time to shine. I am so happy and feel that it lives up to the expectation that I set for it! I really hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Also a little side note, as mentioned before, I do have a Wattpad account that I have this story on as well. On Wattpad for this story instead of Chapter titles, I have them titled as "Part 1: Chapter...". If you include this chapter, I only have three more chapters to go before we hit the last chapter of Part 1. I'm warning you right now, it's going to be a doozy (I'm so excited for it)! When the chapter is posted, it may be a bit before I start Part 2 as I have another story that I wanted to get a little work done for (since I haven't touched it in almost five months). The story is call "Only Time Can Tell" and I will be posting the chapters here on AO3 for you guys to read during the break! I plan on posting the first chapter the day after Part 1 ends. You don't have to read it, its just another project that I have wanted to get back into for some time and between parts for this story seemed like the right time to do it, give you guys some time to stew from the ending of Part 1 :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy the new chapter and thanks for your continued support!

Patton had just shielded Logan and him from another fire blast when out of the corner of his eye he sees Virgil get thrown into a house across the battlefield, the force of the throw caused the house to collapse on top of him. He hears Logan angrily mutter under his breath and from the side he hears Roman yell, “Shit! Virgil! Patton! Logan! We need to help him!” With that shout, Roman slashed out at the dragon again.

Roman created a distraction and both Logan and him ran towards the direction of the building Virgil was buried under. They reached the house and Patton immediately dropped to his knees and started digging into rubble desperately. Logan stood behind him and started using his telekinetic abilities to lift the bigger pieces of debris from the pile. Patton could see the poorly hidden concern etched on Logan's face as he pushed himself to remove the pieces that were bigger than he should have been moving.

After a few seconds of digging, Patton moved a stone and out from under it he saw a bit of the black sleeve of Virgil’s hoodie peaking out, “Virgil! Logan, I found him! Help me get him out.” Now that they knew where to dig, they were able to get his body out much faster.

When they finally had him dug out, Virgil was curled into himself and unconscious. Patton pulled him a little bit away and rolled him onto his back. He looked terrible. There were cuts and bruises everywhere. His hoodie was torn and his eyeshadow was smeared. What Patton was trying to ignore the most was the state that his left leg was in. It had been the hardest part to get unburied as it was under the largest chunk of the house. Patton was no doctor, but he knew that Virgil’s leg wasn’t supposed to look like that. Logan reached down and placed his fingers on Virgil’s wrist, “There’s a pulse… but it’s weak.” 

Logan worriedly looked at Patton. Patton looked down at Virgil’s beaten form, “It’s not much, but I’ll make it work” with that he started healing Virgil. Logan moved to stand guard and watched Roman continue to fight the dragon. Patton could see him shift nervously in his spot watching from behind a wall. “Logan if you’re worried about Roman, why don’t you go help him?”

“Though I would like to do nothing more, I believe that I will be more of a hindrance to Roman than an assistance. If I were to help from here, it would only put you and Virgil in danger. Roman appears to be handling the dragon just fine, no need to draw any unnecessary attention. I’ll keep continuing to observe from here and help if needed.”

Patton continues to heal Virgil and listens to the sound of the fight. After a bit, Patton and Logan hear a groan and their eyes immediately snap to look at Virgil. He opened his eyes slowly, he blinked a couple times and then focused his attention towards them “Pa...Patton?” 

Patton let out a muffled cry that he didn’t know he was holding as he bent his head down to rest it on Virgil’s chest. His only focus for the last few minutes was to keep Virgil alive, he had blocked his feelings from his mind to focus. Now that Virgil was awake, the relief was overwhelming. Patton eventually sat up and with Logan’s help, they slowly moved Virgil into a sitting position. They heard him groan lowly as they slowly moved him to lean against a broken piece of wall. 

Virgil reached up and wiped some of the tears that were still falling down his face, Patton grabbed at his hand and just held it for a second.  _ He’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.  _ Logan sat on the other side of Virgil, he had summoned a handkerchief and started gently wiping the grime and blood of Virgil’s own face. Patton could barely hear the muffled conversation the two were having but could see the relief clear as day of Logan’s face. 

After a few moments of calming down, Patton moved himself to focus on the mess that was Virgil’s leg. He had to keep himself from gagging as he placed his hands over the worse part of the leg (is that a piece of bone sticking out?) and started healing, it was a slow process. 

From off in the distance he heard Roman yell “HEY UGLY” and all three of their heads snapped up as they heard an angry roar. They watched in terror as Roman ran out of the village and the dragon take off after him. “What is that idiot doing! That direction leads to the cliff.”

Patton startled as Virgil started to struggle to stand up. Logan and him pushed Virgil down, “Virgil what are you doing. I only just got the worse of your injuries to close up. You aren’t anywhere close to being healed enough to fight again!”

Virgil turned to look at Patton, his stubbornness clear on his face. “We can’t just leave him alone! That’s a dragon he’s fighting, if the four of us didn’t stand a chance against it, he won’t stand a chance much longer on his own.” He then turned his attention to Logan, “I know that I won’t be able to fight, but you two still can. We need to help him! Once we get to the field, you can place me somewhere out of view and then you two can go and help him out. We’ll all stay in view of each other then.”

Logan sighed and turned his head at the sound of another blast colliding with a ground, beyond their view. “I don’t like the idea of taking you anywhere near that creature in your current state. Unfortunately, I also don’t like the idea of leaving you here on your own while we are out assisting Roman.” Logan looked up at Patton and saw that Patton came to the same decision as he had, “I guess we have no other option at this point. Roman needs our assistance now.”

With that being said, Patton and Logan slowly helped Virgil stand. They each wrapped one of his arms around their shoulders and lifted him up. Due to the severity of the injury to his leg, Virgil couldn’t hold his weight, so Patton and Logan practically held him up completely as they slowly made their way out of the village. They followed the sounds of the dragon from off in the distance.

The three sides finally made it to the field outside the village and their hearts stopped at what they saw. Off in the distance they saw Roman standing on the edge of the cliff with the dragon blocking any path of escape. His katana was drawn at the ready and he looked scared but determined to continue to fight. They watched as the dragon powered up a fire blast. Roman’s eyes turned in their direction and they widened in fear. 

The next few moments passed by slowly. They watched Roman’s eyes turn back to look at the dragon’s face. The dragon let out a roar as it let out a huge blast in Roman’s direction. While the blast headed in his direction, the cliff Roman was standing on gave way and the blast raced past him as Roman then plummeted down off the cliff. “ROMAN!”

______

The three sides cried out as they watched Roman disappear from view. The dragon turned towards them upon hearing them yell. It angered them immensely seeing the sharp fangs of the dragon as it looked almost as if it was smiling. Patton let go of Virgil and called upon his power, summoning up a giant ball of light energy, he sent it hurtling towards the dragon. It burst on impact but barely fazed the creature. 

Logan placed Virgil down on the ground. Grabbing out his book, he used his telekinetic powers to open it and watched as the blue words burst forward. Mumbling angrily, Logan ran forward, swept his hand across the ground and up towards the dragon. Large shards of ice burst from the ground and continued to grow as they made their way towards it.

The dragon jumped off the ground and flew into the sky just as the largest of the shards burst from the ground. Patton and Logan weren’t done yet. Patton summoned more energy blast and sent them towards the dragon. Logan used his telekinesis to break the ice shards from the ground and hurtle them towards it as well. The dragon dodged most of the attacks sent towards it, but some of the attacks made impact.

The onslaught towards the dragon didn’t last long though as the adrenaline wore off. The dragon may have taken a couple hits, but it was still able to push Logan and Patton back towards Virgil. Shortly, Patton, with the help of Logan, was holding up a shield to protect them from the numerous blasts from the dragon.

Patton’s face was covered in sweat from how much energy he was using to hold the shield up. Logan looked just as tired as he kept his hand up towards the shield to try and reinforce it to make it stronger. Virgil watched as what little hope he had left started to dwindle.

One particularly strong blast caused the shield to shatter and Logan and Patton stumbled backwards, barely keeping their footing. The dragon landed from the sky and started stalking slowly towards the three remaining sides. Patton and Logan were too tired to make any defenses, Vigil still couldn’t move due to the injury to his leg.

The dragon opened its mouth and powered up one last blast. Patton dropped and grabbed at Virgil, Logan stood in front of them. He knew there was nothing he could do, but he still felt that strong protective urge. They heard the sounds of the blast powering up and just as the dragon creature was about to shoot, they heard a loud roaring from off near the cliff.

The dragon’s head whipped around and the three sides looked towards the cliff. From beyond the cliffs ledge they watched as a second dragon appeared. Similar to the dragon creature in front of them, the only difference was that this dragon was red and gold. The red dragon gave a few strong beats of its wings before giving another roar and diving down and slamming into the dark dragon causing it to be pushed away.

The dark dragon crashed through the field, causing dirt and rocks to build up on its path. When it was finally able to stand it struggled to do so. It stood in its place and glared at the new opponent. The red dragon placed itself between the three sides and the dark dragon and spread its wings out to block the other dragon’s view of them. These actions confused the them, why would this dragon protect them? 

It only took a few seconds, but soon Patton got a huge smile on his face and he yelled excitedly “Guys! It’s Roman. The dragon is Roman!”. Both Logan and Virgil looked to each other and then glanced at the dragon, it briefly turned its eyes towards them and from the glint in its eyes they could tell that Patton’s statement was true.

Virgil raised his hands and cheered, lowering his them to grab at his leg, wincing as he moved it too much. Logan smiled up at the dragon in relief. Roman turned his head back towards the other dragon and roared again. While he was keeping the other dragon’s attention on him, Roman used his tail to gently push the other sides. They were confused at first but then they noticed a piece of wall sticking out from the ground. As quickly as they could, they gathered Virgil and moved to hide behind the wall, leaving Roman to focus on his battle.

The dark dragon powered up and sent out a white fire blast towards Roman, Roman countered back with a golden blast of his own. When the two blasts collided, the collision of energy between the two caused a massive wave of air to burst across the field. The blasts exploded on impact, Roman used this as an opportunity to bound forward and attack at the dark dragon again.

Roman got close and sank his fangs into the neck of the other dragon. The other dragon reared, Roman still attached, and swiped with its claws to get him off. Roman let go and spun around, smacking the other dragon with his tail in the process. Roman used the temporary daze of the other dragon to stretch his wings and lift off the ground into the sky. The dragon creature chased him shortly after.

The other three sides watched the battle between the two dragons unfold as it moved from the ground to the air. Patton wanted to watch and make sure that Roman would be okay, but he had another situation he needed to deal with even though he was exhausted. Patton shifted himself so he was sitting near Virgil’s outstretched leg and worked on summoning up whatever energy he could in order to continue healing him.

“Patton, what are you doing? You are much too exhausted to be worrying about my leg.”, Virgil lifted his uninjured leg and gently kicked at Patton to try and get him to stop, being careful not to jostle his other leg. “Stop, Patton.”

Patton ignored him and focused on his breathing in order to keep consciousness while healing Virgil’s leg. Logan came up next to him and grabbed both of Patton’s hands in his. “Patton, please stop.” Patton’s breath stopped for a moment before looking up Logan. “I know you are worried. This whole day has been stressful for all of us. But, it will be of no use to Roman for any of us to tire ourselves out.” Virgil reached out and grabbed one of Patton’s hands from Logan.

“Thank you for your concern, but please don’t use anymore energy on me. At least, not until we know that Roman is okay.” Patton glanced between the two men staring at him. He still felt like he needed to distract himself, but he also knew they were right. Squeezing their hands, he gave in to their request and turned his attention back towards Roman’s fight.

The fight between the two dragons still raged on. In midair, they still fought. They snapped at each other with fangs, slashed out with sharp claws, and blasted at each other with bursts of fire. The dodged and attacked in the air above the field. 

Roman turned in the air and raced towards the dark dragon, lunging forward and attacking at the dragon's neck again. As Roman’s teeth latched into its neck, the other dragon attached its fangs into his wing. The force of Roman’s dragon body caused both of them to hurtle towards the ground. They crashed into the ground and broke apart upon impact. Both struggling to stand.

Both dragons looked beaten up. There were various gashes across each of their bodies and tears were ripped into each of their wings. Roman now had a nasty tear in his left wing. The dragon creature had some ugly wounds in its neck from Roman’s teeth. 

Up to this point Roman was letting his dragon’s instincts do most of the fighting. Roman would say that he was the dragon, but in actuality, it was more like the dragon was a part of him that he allowed to take over. The dragon had thoughts and feelings and the two had merged together as Roman fell off the cliff. Roman had thought he was going to die upon impact with the sharp rocks at the bottom, but his dragon had called out and he allowed the dragon to take control. The dragon acted upon instincts as well as Roman’s will and thoughts.

_ This isn’t working, I need a plan. If this keeps going the way it is, we are just going to tear each other apart. What can I do?!  _ The two dragons continued to fight on the ground and Roman did his best to figure out something to do.  _ Where is Logan when you need him _ ? _ _

Roman was startled out of his thoughts as he was tackled to the side by the other creature. He was hit with a white blast and let out a pained growl with its impact. Roman stumbled as he tried to stand, everything hurt, be could sense his dragon was tiring out. Roman looked around as the dark dragon stared at him. Roman only now just noticed that the creature had dark, purple eyes. 

Roman’s eyes were drawn towards the cliff again. He internally sighed as he came up with another stupid idea.  _ I have no other option. I hope this works.  _ Roman called on the last of his energy and he raced towards the cliff’s edge. Spreading out his wings, he used the ledge to help him lift off into the air. Roman heard the other dragon lift off behind him and start chasing him.  _ Good! Try to keep up. _

Roman sped up his flying and head forward till he was directly above the lake. He stopped his flying forward. Before the dark dragon reached him, Roman flapped his wings and shot upwards as fast as he could. The creature only took a few seconds to collect itself before it continued to race after him.  _ Let’s see how high you can go asshole! _

Roman continued to fly higher and higher. The dark dragon was fast, but thankfully, Roman was faster. Roman finally reaches as high as his dragon form can go. All its energy was drained. There was a large distance between the two, he just hoped that it was enough for what he planned to do. At the top of his arc he gave a silent thank you to his dragon as he transformed back into his human form. 

Roman’s body started to fall when he no longer had wings to continue carrying him upwards. While he descended, Roman shifted his body so that he was falling head first. The ground was far below, but that wasn’t his focus, the dark dragon was. 

The dark dragon continued flying upwards while Roman plummeted downwards. Roman felt the wind whip about him as he continually picked up speed. As the dragon got closer, Roman fought against the wind and pulled out his katana (he still carried it on him). Thankfully the dragon wasn’t directly below him, more or less a foot away, but that was all he needed.  _ Please let this work… _

As the dragon and Roman started to pass each, Roman placed his sword out towards the dragon. A bright, golden fire burst from the katana as they passed each other. Roman’s katana pierced the tip of the dragons mouth and started to slash straight through the creature’s body. Due to the speed at which Roman was falling, there was no resistance and his blade sliced cleanly through the creature from head to tail. Roman knew now wasn’t the time, but he couldn’t help but feel a small bit of relief.

When Roman fully passed, he turned his body just in time to watch the dark dragon give a final screech-sounding roar before it exploded in a white and gold blast. The wave of energy from the blast was intense. It smacked into Roman and knocked his katana from his hand. Roman curled in as he felt the searing heat from the blast. 

Roman finally remembered that he was still falling from the ‘sky’ (remember I said he flew really high into the air). He didn’t have too much more time to think about that fact though because the next thing he knew, he made impact with a freezing cold surface that knocked him unconscious.

_______ 

The three sides watched as the battle came to a close. They watched the fight on the ground. They saw Roman race off the cliff side and start to fly up into the air. They watched as the other dragon chased Roman up almost too high for them to see. They watched in fear as Roman changed from a dragon back into a human and start to fall. They saw the two beings pass each other and then they saw a massive explosion as the dark creature was destroyed. The last they saw of Roman was of him making impact with the murky lake and disappearing.

The three sides quickly started moving towards the lake. They couldn’t move fast, due to still having to support Virgil and they were all exhausted, but they did what they could. Much to Patton and Virgil’s arguing, Logan used his ability and created a broken set of stairs (they are broken because he didn’t have enough energy to finish them). They made it to the bottom of the stairs and started looking around for Roman.

They walked around the grey sandy beach looking for any sign of Roman, they found nothing. They found his katana which had embedded itself into a rock along the beach. They tried to remove it but were unable to. After a short while of searching they were about to give up when all of a sudden a hand burst from the water and reached up to grab the side of the lake. 

“Roman!” Patton let go of Virgil, making sure that Logan was okay to support him, and raced forward to help Roman out of the lake. Logan and Virgil slowly made their way forward to where Patton had helped Roman to sit on the ground.

Roman was coughing as Patton was fussing over him. Logan sat Virgil down next to Roman and then moved to sit next to Patton. The three gave Roman a moment to compose himself. “What the  _ hell  _ was that? You fell off a cliff and suddenly become a  _ dragon _ ! Explain Roman.”

Roman turned to Virgil and just grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. Virgil was shocked for a moment as he felt Roman tuck his face into his neck. He was about to ask Roman what he was doing when he heard him softly whisper “I’m really happy that you are okay, Virgil. That  _ all  _ of you are okay.” Virgil felt his heart flutter as he slowly wrapped his arms around Roman tightly. He had almost forgotten with all the commotion that the last time Roman had actually seen him, he had been smashed into a wall. He probably hadn’t even known he was okay until right before he was knocked off the cliff.

Virgil looked up at the others. Patton had stopped fussing over Roman at this point and had curled into Logan’s side. Logan seemed to pay him no mind (since normally Logan would be averted to physical affection), Logan had even wrapped an arm around Patton’s shoulder. Both looked at him and were smiling.

Through everything they had been through today (was it even the same day?) he felt an unusual contentedness right now. They had been through multiple life or death situations and knowing about that the care they felt for each other, the care they felt for  _ him _ , made him happy. There was an unknown feeling building in his chest. It had appeared before, but he had always pushed it down. He pushed it down again knowing that now was not the time to explore those feelings, because if he did, it could lead to a realization he wasn’t prepared for. He squeezed Roman just a little tighter and gave a small smile towards the other two.

“I guess we can save the explanation for later… Right now, I think we all need to rest, none of us are in any shape to continue on.” The others agreed and after a few more minutes they finally separated from each to head back towards the village. Before they headed back up the broken stairs they made their way over to Roman’s katana so he could try to retrieve it.

Patton was walking ahead as Logan and Roman had elected themselves to the job of helping Virgil along. Roman had offered to carry Virgil like a princess but Virgil had given him a hard no on that one. “Do you think it’s safe to rest up in the village? We haven’t actually found the guardian sword, doesn’t that mean that some more monsters could still appear?”

“I don’t think we have anything to worry about, Patton.” Patton turned around and started to walk backwards to make sure Logan knew he had his attention. “I hypothesize that the dragon was the only obstacle that we had to face here. Now that it’s gone, I don’t believe that there are any other threats within the area.”

They had finally reached where Roman’s katana was stuck in the ground. Roman let go of Virgil and walked forward. “Looks like we didn’t even need the sword anyways. I turned into a dragon! Though, I don’t think I’ll be able to do that again, sadly. I took care of that creep without having the sword.” He reached out and grabbed the hilt of his sword, “Who needs a fancy  _ guardian sword  _ anyways.” with that he pulled his katana out of the ground.

The area filled with a bright, golden light. The four sides shielded their eyes as they felt warm waves of heat pass over them. When they opened their eyes, Roman was no longer holding his katana, but rather a brilliant sword. The blade was long and sharp, a golden glow radiating from it. The hilt was made of gold with an elegant red rose carved into the center. 

“Woah…” The sides watched in amazement as Roman tested the feel of the sword in his hand. He swung it around and tested different offensive and defensive stances. “This sword is incredible. It feels so natural in my hand, like it was made for me.” He looked at the others with a goofy grin which turned into one of surprise as he looked past them.

The others turned around and saw that the area around them had completely changed. The field had turned into a dark green plain. The murky water of the lake was now a clear dark blue and pretty black flowers were scattered throughout. They headed up the now complete stairs and got a view of the village.

The village looked as though the battle had never happened. The houses were all put together and the walkway was fixed. The fountain now had dark blue water flowing through it. The stained glass window was what stopped them in their tracks. The window shined brilliantly from an invisible sun. The guardian’s red cloak sparkled from the sunlight and the sword was held proudly in the guardian’s hands. Behind the guardian was the red and gold dragon breathing fire into the air. Green fields, a blue lake, and a white castle, lay in the background beyond the guardian.

“We can admire the village later, right now, let’s just pick one of these houses to rest in.” They all nodded and walked into the closest house to them in the village square. There wasn’t any furniture in the house, but the sides didn’t mind. Logan used the last bit of his energy to summon them up some blankets, after that they settled down on the floor (practically on top of each other) and passed out for some much needed rest because...

_Who knew what was waiting for them when they finally woke up._


	16. Calm before the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Multiple Trigger Warning!!!  
Sorry have been really bad about keeping up with these.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone!
> 
> Here's the next chapter. A nice and slightly fluffy chapter before we get to the Part 1 finale!   
I've had the finale planned for a while now and if I'm gonna be honest, now that I'm actually writing it, it's making my heart hurt a little (especially since I know how the finale ends).
> 
> Thank you all for the continued wonderful support, kudos, and comments!  
Hope you enjoy and I'll see you all soon in the finale!
> 
> Alicemarie

_ Virgil didn’t know what was going on, but it wasn’t good. The last thing he remembered he was with the others in the ruined village, but now he was separated from them. He was running through the hallways of the manor being chased by all the dark creatures that they were supposed to have already defeated.  _

_ The dark shadow creatures burst from the wall and jumped out to slash at him. The dark figure stomped loudly behind, throwing paintings and furniture at him. The dark dragon roared from above him, swooping down to swipe at him with his claws. Every now and then the dragon would send a fire blast his way. _

_ “Roman!? Logan?! Patton?! Where are you guys?” Virgil yelled into the endless hallway. He prayed that one of them would answer but he had a sinking feeling that none of them would. An end table flew over his head and shattered on the floor in front him. He jumped over the remains and rolled forward as the dragon came down and slashed out at him again. _

_ The dark creatures continued to chase and attack Virgil through the hallways. Eventually Virgil noticed that at the end of the hallway an archway appeared, he didn’t have enough time to comprehend where it might lead because shortly after noticing it, he was already through it. That was the worst thing possible. _

_ The archway led into the black, marble room that he was very familiar with. Virgil came to a grinding halt before he collided with one of the walls of the room. Virgil quickly turned around and watched in terror as the dark creatures entered the room and started to surround him. There was no escape. _

_ The creatures were everywhere. The dark shadow creatures were growing from black dust that was appearing out of nowhere from the polished marble walls. The dark figure creeped forward till it was standing a few feet away from him to his right. The dragon was the last to enter, giving one last powerful beat of its wings before landing directly in the archway into the room, giving a mighty roar.  _

_ Virgil waited in fearful anticipation for what the creatures were going to do… but they weren’t doing anything. They just stood there and glared at him, their growls echoing through the room. Why? It didn’t make any sense. What were they planning to do? What was he going to do?  _

_ Virgil didn’t know how long he had been staring at the creatures. Suddenly a smaller creature starts to walk out from under the huge dragon and Virgil felt his breath stutter. The creature was small, furry and had sharp, green eyes. “Nyx?” What was she doing here? The small, black cat sat calmly at the base of the dragon’s claws.  _

_ This didn’t make any sense. She held no fear as she sat in the midst of so many creatures that had been trying to kill him and his friends for so long. Virgil was startled out of his spiraling thoughts when he suddenly heard a drip from behind him. Stumbling forward, Virgil whipped around and saw that the wall that he had stopped at was now dripping a dark, inky sludge. The stench of the sludge starting to permeate the room. _

_ Virgil gagged and jumped in his place when he heard a screeching roar sound from behind him. He turned and saw that the black sludge was now falling from everywhere… and it was taking out the creatures. The sludge fell from the ceiling in globs and it either landed on the creatures or splashed onto them when it landed on the ground.  _

_ When the sludge came into contact with the creatures they started to melt away like it was acid. He heard their cries echo through the room. The creatures tried to escape but the archway had closed on them. The worst part wasn’t their cries, or the fact that he was watching them disintegrate, it was the fact that for some reason he felt a small degree of their pain. _

_ He didn’t know what to do, he was so confused. He tried to move forward, at least to get to Nyx who was scrambling around (trying to escape the raining sludge), but the sludge had glued he feet to the floor. Virgil was panicking. _

_ Virgil watched in horror as the sludge started to grow up his body, he couldn’t feel anything other than a burning pain in his covered limbs. The sludge grew further and further and he could do nothing but watch the chaos that was ensuing around him.  _

_ His heart stung. He wasn’t going to make it out of this. The others weren’t going to ever know what happened to him. He was alone… Would they even care? He felt stinging tears start to fall down his face and let out a scream as the sludge made its way up his neck and onto his face. Finally the sludge made its way so that it was fully encasing him. He couldn’t move. He couldn't think. He was panicking. He was suffocating.  _

_____

Virgil woke with a gasping start. He was shaking badly and could feel the tears falling down his face. Virgil shifted so that he was sitting up, wincing when he jostled his injured leg too much. He raised his hands to cover his face and started his breathing exercises. He needed to calm down.  _ Everything is okay. It was just a dream… But, it felt so real. _ Virgil eventually felt that he was okay... Well not completely okay, but okay enough. 

Once Virgil felt collected enough he looked around him trying to figure out where he was, he took an almost indescribable amount of comfort in noticing that he was still laying on the floor of one of the houses.Virgil started to notice that there was an unknown weight resting on both his waist and leg. Looking down he couldn’t help but smile, letting a small chuckle leave his mouth.

When he looked down he saw that Roman’s arm was curled around his waist, his other arm was bent under his head as a makeshift pillow. The weight on top of his good leg came from a pair of legs, Patton’s legs, that were sprawled on top of him. Patton’s head was resting on Logan’s chest while Logan rested peacefully. One of Logan’s arms was behind his head, the other resting on Patton’s chest. Virgil was confused on how they all ended up sleeping on top of each other, along with how none of them woke with his cry, but right now he didn’t care.

Virgil knew that there wasn’t a way for him to move himself from the pile without waking one of the others up, but if he was going to be honest, he wasn’t in a hurry to move. Through everything they had been through the past day (?) he was content to just sit there and let the others sleep peacefully. Virgil looked down at Roman and smiled softly as he moved some of his hair from his face. 

_ If this was any other day… _ The smile on Virgil’s face shifted into a frown.  _ No, Virgil. You can’t be thinking like that. We can’t explore those feelings, not now.  _ Virgil looked down at each of the others before looking at his hands. For so long he denied any acknowledgement of having any sort of feelings for any of them. He accepted the fact that all they would be was friends. This whole adventure had brought back old feelings that he had been ignoring for so long. Now after three near death experiences and multiple emotional displays (from all of them), Virgil couldn’t help the feelings that bubbled up. Virgil audibly sighed again.  _ Oh well… I guess I can enjoy it for the moment. _

Virgil was eventually startled out of his thoughts by some shuffling off to the side. Looking over he watched as Logan slowly sat himself up, careful of Patton’s head resting on him (moving it to rest on his lap), and put on his glasses. Virgil saw Logan smile softly down at Patton before he looked up and noticed Virgil staring. Logan only startled briefly before that calm smile returned to his face as he looked at Virgil.  _ Dammit, Logan. Why you gotta be like that? _

_ _ Logan let out a small yawn reaching up to push his hair out of his eyes, “Good morning, Virgil. Have you been up long?” he asked Virgil lowly, voice still gruff from sleep. 

Virgil stifled another laugh as he shook his head. “Only for a short while. Unfortunately, I have been unable to move due to some extra weight I seemed to have put on while sleeping.” It warmed his heart to see Logan raise his hand to cover a laugh from himself as well. This whole experience seemed to have helped Logan open up with his emotions a little more.

“It would appear that we both put on some extra weight while sleeping.” Logan glanced down at both Patton and Roman’s sleeping forms, “I feel that it would be unwise to try and disturb either of them from their rest. They both went through a lot yesterday and need as much rest as they can get.”

Virgil sadly looked down at his lap. “I feel terrible…” Logan looked worriedly at Virgil. He raised an eyebrow at him, trying to dissect what he meant. Virgil simply waved a hand towards his leg. “After getting smashed into that house, I was completely useless. Even now I have to wait for Patton to wake up to heal my leg so I can walk again. I’ve hardly been able to do anything this entire ‘trip’. You guys have done most of the fighting and protecting. I’ve done… nothing.”

Logan frowned at Virgil’s words. He was confused at how Virgil could think so lowly of himself. He knew that Virgil had a tendency to think lower of himself than others, but did he really think that he hadn’t done anything during this excursion? That he had been completely useless? This upset Logan quite a bit. He was about to object to Virgil’s statement, but he was beaten to it. “You’ve done everything that you could.”

Both Logan and Virgil’s eyes snapped down to see that Roman was now awake. Roman sat up (acting like he  _ wasn’t _ just laying on top of Virgil) and looked at him annoyed “You’ve done everything in your ability to protect us. You stood in front of Patton and Logan when the dark shadows attacked in the storage room. You fought alongside me the best you could within the Darkchives against that dark figure. You attacked a freaking dragon!” Roman huffed as he ran his hand through his hair in frustration. 

“You can’t help the situation, kiddo.” Everyone’s attention turned to the last side who had just woken up. Patton slowly sat up and wiped the sleep from his eyes. Stretching his arms into the air he gave a loud yawn before lowering his arms and accepting his glasses from Logan’s outstretched hand. “Unfortunately for us the situation has made it nearly impossible for any one of us to do the whole thing on our own. We’ve all done everything we could.” Patton smiled softly and reached out to lightly kick at Virgil’s good leg. “We’ve all made a pretty good team together this whole time.”

Roman threw his arm over Virgil’s shoulder and pulled him closer to his side and smiled, “We are a team, together there is nothing we can’t do. We make each other stronger, better.”

Virgil felt that warm feeling flutter again. He looked from Roman’s endearing smile to Logan and Patton. Logan had turned his body to face him and Roman. He had that same calm smile that he had worn all morning. Patton was sitting with his legs crossed, leaning into Logan, with his usual bright smile. He felt content to stay like that. If he could just avoid the problem that laid outside this house and just stay here, he would, but he knew that wasn’t an option.

“Whatever happens, we can do it  _ together _ . Let’s stay together no matter what, okay?” Virgil had hoped that Patton hadn’t meant for it to sound as much of a plea as it did. Virgil also had to silence the voice that was telling him that there was more to Patton’s request. They all agreed but Virgil had this sinking feeling that the promise was going to be harder to keep than Patton, or any of them, could think.

Seemingly satisfied with their responses, Patton scooched over closer to Virgil. Virgil raised his eyebrow in question to which he got a (cute) giggle in response. “I’m healing you leg up, kiddo! Did you forget that you injured it yesterday?” Virgil looked down at his leg and saw the ugly state that it was in. Virgil felt his face heat up.  _ Guess I have been too focused on other things to think of my leg.  _ Another giggle escaped Patton as he started to heal Virgil’s leg.

While Patton took care of his leg, Virgil watched as Logan moved from his spot to his messenger bag that was resting along the wall near the door. Virgil watched in curiosity while trying to figure out what he was doing. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one. “What you doing over there Specs?”

Logan readjusted his glasses on his face as he sat down on the floor by the others again. Opening his book, the glowing words appeared, Logan simply muttered something and waved his hand between the four of them. They all watched in amazement as a small breakfast appeared. Fruits, bagels and cream cheese, two glasses of milk, and two cups of steaming coffee appeared. They all stared wide-eyed at the display before them. “Logan… Did you just use your power to make  _ breakfast?”  _

Logan chuckled affectionately. “Yes, Roman. I did, in fact, make breakfast.” Logan reached forward and grabbed one of the cups of coffee, taking a sip they could all visibly see his shoulders relax a little. “Through everything that we have been through, if my memory serves me correctly, the last time any of us ate anything was yesterday. We’re all exhausted and sleeping on the floor isn’t necessarily a satisfactory option for optimal rest. Having a ‘balanced’ breakfast can help restore some more of the energy that we have lost during our recent battles.”

Patton had finally finished healing his leg. Virgil stood up on his own for the first time in a while. He wobbled a little once he was back on his feet, but once he got his balance back, he stretched out all his sore muscles (hearing a satisfying crack come from his back). When he finished stretching out his limbs he sat down in the circle the other sides had created. Looking at Logan he asked, “Why waste your energy on creating so much food?” 

Logan took another sip of his coffee. He looked at Virgil dead in the eyes and said in a serious tone, “For you guys, nothing is a waste of energy.”

____________

The four sides ate breakfast in relative silence. They felt better than they had before they all had passed out on the floor, but they could still feel the soreness and exhaustion throughout their bodies. After he had finished eating, Patton had moved himself to rest his head on Virgil’s lap. Virgil had at some point started absentmindedly running his fingers through Patton’s hair, it was helping him stay calm and work through his thoughts.

They had all finished, when Roman stood up, all eyes turned to him. “So I guess the next thing we are looking for is Virgil’s guardian room?” They all turned to look at Virgil and he shifted in his spot. 

“I don’t think that I have a room.” Everyone stared at him in confusion, so he continued. “Since I have my powers already, and as far as I know the guardian that's supposed to be me doesn’t have any particular item, I’m pretty sure I don’t have a room.”

The others didn’t quite seem to look convinced by what he was saying. “Virgil, what about the ‘scale’ aspect of your guardian?” Logan inquired having gotten out the book again to show him the picture of the guardians. The purple guardian was the only one without color. The ‘scales’ they mentioned still tipping in the moon’s favor. The sun and star were just shapes without detail resting in their respective places.

Virgil just shrugged his shoulders, “No idea what that’s about… Maybe it will change once we find what’s causing the corruption?”

“Possibly…” Logan’s eyebrows furrowed as he turned the book back to study it. “I guess we won’t know until we leave our current location to continue progressing.”

It wasn’t much to work with, but it was all they had. They took a few more minutes to relax and collect their bearings before cleaning up and getting ready to go. Roman walked over to the wall to collect his sword. Attaching its sheath back to his waist he said, “Alright my fair gentlemen. Shall we continue forth  _ into the unknown _ ?” Virgil and Logan groaned while Patton giggled at Roman’s theatrics.

The four sides made their way through the village and up the dirt pathway towards the house they entered from. Once they reached the doorway they took one last look around the strange room. Virgil gave a silent thank you for allowing him a few moments of peace. They turned around and exited the room and entered back into the manor.

Nyx appeared by their feet. She rubbed up against all four of the sides before jumping up onto Virgil’s shoulders. He gave her head a few scratches and then gently removed her from his shoulders. He moved her over so she could rest upon Patton’s shoulders instead. Nyx gave him a curious look, “Sorry girl. My leg is really sore from an injury I got in that room. Best not carry any extra weight for a bit until it feels better.” Nyx seemed content with that answer and went to cuddle up to Patton’s face, purring loudly.

Virgil knew that wasn’t the reason why he didn’t want Nyx on his shoulders. Seeing her reminded him of his dream from earlier. Her presence in his dream disturbed him just enough that he needed some space from her. He still loved the cat, he just needed to put together his thoughts.

Virgil felt a hand grab his right hand and an arm wrap around his shoulder. Looking to his sides he noticed Patton and Roman, respectively. Logan stood in front of him. Roman raised his hand from where it rested on his shoulder (not moving his arm, mind you) and flicked the side of his head. “Whatever is on your mind Stormcloud, knock it off. Lighten up, can’t have you looking all gloomy.”

Roman’s smile was contagious, Virgil couldn’t help but smile as he shook his head. “Whatever, Princey. Let’s just get this show on the road.”

With that the four sides continued on down the hallways of the manor. Virgil tried to keep his thoughts on the positives but he couldn’t help but feel that he was in the middle of the... 

_ Calm before the storm _ . 


	17. A Great Sacrifice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 1 Finale is here!
> 
> You guys have no idea how grateful I am to everyone who has read and supported this story. I started it six months ago, thinking that it was going to be short (maybe 10 chapters) and that not many people were going to read it. Now it is 16 chapters in counting and has 600+ views! Part 2 is in the works and I even have a possible Part 3 (something for after the initial story is over) planned.
> 
> Remember during the brief intermission between parts (because i love this story too much to stop for a long period of time) I will have another story I will be posting and working on. You don't have to read it, just letting you know that that is where my attention will be for a short bit.
> 
> Once again, Thank you so much to everyone, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will see you all again for Part 2!
> 
> -Alicemarie

The four sides had been walking through the manor for quite some time. There had been small bits of conversation here and there, but otherwise that they traveled in silence. They were all lost in their thoughts as they continued forward, looking for whatever arch or door would lead them to their next destination.

Virgil’s thoughts were scattered all over the place. His dream played through his head as well as possible outcomes for how this whole thing was going to work out. Up to this point they had at least some idea of what they were supposed to do, now there was nothing. Virgil started to fidget quite a bit as they walked. 

Virgil wasn’t sure when he started to notice the changes of the hallway going on around him, but something felt wrong and it was very unsettling. The air seemed heavier. The sludge that leaked from the cracks in the walls was coming down thicker, laying in puddles along the floor. The hallway seemed to be getting wider. The wallpaper appeared to be fading away and became more marble looking. 

Virgil heard a crack under his footstep and looked down.  _ What the?  _ Virgil stopped in his tracks, the others stopped walking to see what he was doing. Virgil bent down and grabbed the piece of debris that was under his shoe. Lifting it up there was nothing but white fabric on the side facing him, he flipped it around to look at the other side and dropped the piece from his hand.

The debris that Virgil had been holding was actually a piece of a painting. The piece glared back at him with dull, yellow scales visible. Virgil looked up terrified and noticed that the area that they were in was littered with these different pieces of paintings. Virgil’s breath quickened as he anticipated what was going to happen next. 

Roman, Patton, and Logan were looking around at the various pieces as well. They each held a similar look of confusion. All four sides startled out of their thoughts when they heard a loud, grinding sound start.

They watched in fear as the hallway started to shift. It remained a hallway, but the appearance changed. The hallway started to widen until it’s wide enough to be a room itself. The floors and walls turned into a sleek, black marble. Their eyes widen when they see what waits ahead of them at the end of the hallway. 

Standing in front of them a little ways down the hall were two figures. They couldn’t believe who they were seeing. “Deceit! Remus!” They all yelled in surprise. They all stared at the two sides and the state that they were in. Deceit stood on one side of the hallway while Remus stood on the other. Both stood stiff as boards, their clothes were disheveled and torn like they had been in a really bad fight. Remus had what appeared to be fresh scratch marks on the side of his face. Deceit was missing a glove, blood dripping down his hand from an injury that could be seen on his left arm. 

Nyx hissed at their arrival and jumps off of Patton’s shoulders, moving to stand behind the group. Roman and Patton try to move towards them, when suddenly they are stopped by Virgil. They look at him in confusion until they notice the fearful look on his face. Virgil felt knots in his stomach, this situation just went from bad to worse. He knew that they didn’t have much of a choice, they only had one option. “Guys, we need to run.”

They all looked at him wide eyed, “WHAT?!” 

Virgil pressed his lips into a thin line as he watched the menacing smirks appear on Remus and Deceit’s faces. They were going to attack soon. “We don’t have any other choice right now. Everything we have faced up to this point have been creatures made of shadows. These are actually sides! Their power far exceeds anything else that we have faced so far. We are all exhausted and need to regroup before we stand any chance of beating them.”

Patton looked from Virgil to the other two worriedly, “Beat them? What do you mean by  _ beat _ them?!” Virgil could do nothing more than give Patton a sad look.

“Please understand, Patton. They aren’t themselves right now. Look at their eyes!” Everyone looked at the two missing sides and startled when they noticed their eyes. The whites of their eyes were completely black which caused their glowing to stand out (Remus’ were green and Deceit’s were yellow). Patton moved to curl into Logan’s side and Roman gulped. “They’ve been corrupted. There isn’t anything we can do for them right now.”

When Virgil said that the two sides had been corrupted, wicked grins spread across the two sides’ faces. Slowly the area around them seemed to shift, becoming distorted. Black smoke filled the air as menacing laughter surrounded them. The four sides watched in fear as the two started to change form.

The bright, green glow that was in Remus’ eyes started to surround him. Huge octopus-like tentacles emerged from his back and dripped with a dark, green ooze that sizzled and melted through the floor in the places it fell. Deceit’s yellow glow spread across the hallway. The four crammed closer together as they watched dozens of pairs of golden eyes appear in the black smoke. “We need to leave…” Virgil watched in terror as Remus’ tentacles moved to fling their sludge at them and Deceit raised his hand and waved it towards them. “NOW! Move!” With that, they turned and bolted down the hall.

The four were running down the hall with Nyx racing in front of them. They were dodging the flying ooze and avoiding the glowing snakes snapping at their ankles. “What is with these powers? Where did they come from?!” Roman shouted as he jumped over a snake that appeared out from a crack in the floorboards.

“These are their powers in Darkscape… At least their basic abilities. The ooze is like acid and the snakes turn into chains the minute they latch onto you, paralyze you where you stand.” Virgil ducked as another ooze ball flew over his head. “Don’t let anything touch you!”

The side kept running even though they were still exhausted. Their goal was to make it to the doors leading out of the manor, they could only only hope that the manor would lead them to it. (Remember the manor has guided them where they needed to go up to this point) Virgil could see both Logan and Patton breathing hard (since they both weren’t generally athletic types). Roman’s face was grief-stricken.  _ Probably from seeing Remus in such a state. I know he says he hates his brother but I’m pretty sure that statement isn’t true. I can only imagine how he’s feeling right now. _

If Virgil thought the situation the four were in couldn’t get any worse, he was wrong. The four came to a stop as they watched the black, smoke form a wall and start to shift and take on shapes in front of them. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” The dark creatures had appeared to join the fight as well.

Roman quickly pulls Logan out of the way from one of the creature's claws. He pulls his sword out from its sheath and the minute it ignites he slashes it through the creatures that appeared next to them. Logan looked up and used his telekinetic powers to catch a wooden beam that had blasted from near the ceiling due to one of Remus’ acid blob. Patton pulls up a quick shield to deflect another one of the acidic blobs, then summons some light orbs to destroy some of Deceits snakes that had appeared out from the wreckage.

Virgil used his surge ability to eradicate a few more creatures before grabbing Patton’s hand and yelling at the others, “Let’s go! We can’t stay here. We need to leave now!” At this point there was no arguing and all four sides turned and continued racing down the hallway. Roman slashed out at another creature that burst from the wall. Next to him, Logan paused long enough to freeze another row of shades that appeared. They were coming from everywhere. 

While they were running, Remus threw one of his acidic globs and it hit one of the large, wooden beams that lined the invisible ceiling. Virgil barely had time to push Patton ahead of him before it crashed down between him and the others. Patton fell onto the ground while Virgil stumbled a couple steps back. The beam was huge, smoking with a horrid stench coming off of it. Virgil covers his nose and tries to look beyond it to make sure Patton was okay. 

Virgil saw Roman and Logan stop upon hearing the crash and quickly turned around, moving to help Patton up off the floor. They looked up worriedly at Virgil and tried to find a way to get to him. He glanced back at the two corrupted figures stalking towards him and knew they couldn’t waste any time trying to get to him. Looking forward he noticed that the front door to the manor had appeared, and it was close. Pointing towards it, he yells “Just keep running! Get to the door!”

They looked towards the door and quickly looked back at him, “What about you! We can’t just…”

“JUST GO! The door is right there. I’ll catch up with you guys shortly.” They were startled by Virgil’s outburst but hesitantly they did turn around and continue running down the hallway to the door, occasionally glancing back towards him.

Virgil looks around for a solution on how to make his way around the fallen beam when he suddenly feels Deceit’s snakes wrap around his arms, legs, and neck. They turn into chains, and with a hard yank, force him to fly backwards and land on his back. He groans and fights against their pull to push himself into an upwards position. He sees that Remus and Deceit are advancing towards him at an alarming right.

He struggles against the binds in fear. He knew that if they caught him it was game over. He would never get out of the manor. He would never get to see the others again, or worse, they would come back for him and get caught themselves. Through his fear and concern he feels his energy build up (almost painfully). He barely heard himself yell as his power came out in one huge body surge getting rid of the chains and wreckage surrounding him. The force of the surge blasting Deceit and Remus back a few yards and causing a temporary daze.

Virgil hurriedly makes his way to stand. Once on his feet, he wobbles and has to move to the wall to support himself. His vision is blurry and his head is pounding from the amount of energy he used in the blast. Every part of him hurt. Virgil knows he doesn’t have much time to recover before the two controlled sides get back up, so against his better judgement, he starts to run to catch up with the others.

Up ahead, he sees Roman, Logan, and Patton continuing to fight together to get out of the manor. Roman slashing through creatures or igniting them on fire. Logan freezing them or summoning things to throw at them. Patton was doing his best to summon shields to protect them and throwing light orbs whenever he could. He could see that they were getting closer to the exit.

Virgil continues through the manor trying his best to catch up with them. As creatures came at him, he dodged out of the way. He didn’t have the energy anymore to use his powers after earlier. He could sense Deceit and Remus had started advancing on him again. As Virgil is running, he doesn’t know what causes him to look at the creatures, but when he does he feels his blood run cold.

_ What? What is that?  _ As Virgil looked really closely, he could see that around the creatures is a very faint purple outline. He’s confused, had that been there the entire time? A throbbing pain coursed through his head. He tripped on a piece of debris and fell forward onto his knees. 

__________

_ A younger Virgil was roaming the manor. Fear coursed through him as he heard the howls of other figments echo through the halls. He looks down at his translucent skin, the dark particles radiating off of him. Virgil’s hands fly into his hair as he crumbles to the ground from a sudden surge of panic. Images of Thomas’ dark bedroom fly through his mind, Thomas’ night light had gone out.  _

_ Thomas calls out for his parents, terrified of the monsters that lurk in the dark corners of the room. Virgil cries out in terror as he watches a familiar, purple aura appear around him. He falls backwards and curls against the wall as dark creatures start to form, completely surrounding him. The dark creatures turn to look at him and growl, doing nothing but glare at him. The faint, purple outline surrounding them was a horrible reminder that he’s causing Thomas’ fear. “Why?” He whimpered. “Why am I like this…” _

__________

Old, locked away memories surged forward.  _ No... No. No. No. NO!  _ Virgil nearly yelled as he realized, in that terrifying moment, that  _ he _ was the one that summoned the creatures to them.  _ He  _ was the one that had been putting everyone in danger.  _ What have I done?  _ He feels sick to his stomach. _ The creatures are my fault… I summoned the creatures here… I brought the others here. I’m the reason everyone has been in danger! _

He looks up during his panic on the floor and sees that the others make it to the doors and force them open. The second they get the door open they turn around and see Virgil kneeling on the ground. “Virgil!” Roman sees Virgil struggling and makes to run back towards him. Virgil stands quickly and raises his hand to tell him to stop. Shaking his head, Virgil starts to race (as quickly as he can) towards the others.

The dark creatures were still forming, but they seemed to have halted their attacks towards him. Virgil fearfully wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that he now knew that he was the one that created them. Though the dark creatures had stopped their assault on him, Deceit and Remus hadn’t. Golden snakes stilled charged at him from any nook or cranny they could form and acidic orbs still were being flung around him, almost erratically.

Virgil finally caught up to Roman, Logan, and Patton, who were waiting nervously at the manor door. Nyx was pacing on the porch. Virgil ran up to them and, as gently as he could in his hurry, shoved them out the manor door. When all four of them were out, he turned around and slammed shut the door. Hopefully stalling whatever creatures that decided to follow them. He spun around and followed after the others as they raced their way out the courtyard and into the Forest for Unwanted Thoughts.

Roman, Logan, and Patton ran ahead. Virgil held up the rear. As he ran Virgil couldn’t control his thoughts. He could only focus on the fact that the others were in danger because of  _ him _ . They had been attacked, injured, and nearly killed because of  _ him _ and  _ his _ power. He couldn’t discern what had happened due to the corruption or what had happened because he couldn’t control his powers within the manor.  _ I can’t do this! I can’t do this to them…  _

_ Roman… _

_ __________ _

_ Virgil hadn’t been able to sleep so he decided to go downstairs for a late night snack. Walking down the stairs Virgil saw that there was light coming from in the living room, curious, he walked into the living room to see what was causing it. Sitting on the couch was Roman, curled up under one of the fluffy throw blankets, Moana playing on the tv, notebook opened up on his lap, and crumbled pieces of paper everywhere. “Having a hard time with ideas, Princey?”  _

_ Roman startled a bit from hearing a voice, but quickly calmed down once he noticed it was Virgil. “Kind of...What are you doing up so late, Stormcloud? Couldn’t sleep?” _

_ Virgil chuckled and nodded his head. Roman smiled at him and patted the spot next to him, lifting up the soft covers. Virgil raised his eyebrow up in question, Roman merely chuckled, “I don’t bite. If you’re up you might as well enjoy this movie with me. Unless you don’t want to?” _

_ Virgil scoffed at Roman’s smirk but moved to sit next to the creative side anyways, making sure to keep a good foot between them. Shortly after Virgil got settled he started to feel himself doze off. He couldn't tell if it was from the movie, the soft scribble of Roman’s pen on his notebook, or the heat that was radiating off of Roman under their shared blanket, but he didn’t care. He sank into the comfort and allowed himself to fall asleep.  _

_ Virgil woke up a few hours later. He curled back into the heat surrounding him praying for five more minutes. His mind became more alert when it tried to figure out where the heat was coming from. Virgil snapped open his eyes and sat up quickly, looking around, he noticed that he was in the living room. The menu screen for Moana was muted. He looked down where he had been laying on the couch and noticed that he had been laying on top of Roman. “How the hell did he not wake up?” he whispered. _

_ Virgil glanced to the side and noticed that Roman’s notebook was open and resting on the coffee table. He reached over to grab it and saw that it was a new video idea. Virgil settled into the couch (after replacing the blanket on the still sleeping Roman) and read through his new idea. He couldn’t help the smile on his face. _

_ __________ _

_ Logan.... _

_ __________ _

_ Virgil was feeling particularly restless. Thomas had been busy the entire day with meetings and video planning and it had started to wear him down. Though Thomas was finished and at home relaxing, Virgil was not okay, but he was trying to calm down so he didn’t work Thomas up too much.  _

_ He didn’t want to stay in the mind palace so he decided to go to the next best place he could think of, the Archives. Virgil had spent many of his younger, figment, years roaming around and hiding out within the Darkchives. When he became a complete side and escaped into the Mindscape, the Archives became an escape for him as well. He would never tell the others, but reading was very calming for him. _

_ Not wanting to walk all the way there, Virgil goes up to Logan’s room to use his portal to get there quicker. Pushing the button on Logan’s desk, the portal opened up and Virgil walked through it. Upon entering the Archives, Virgil couldn’t help but take a deep breath, taking in the wonderful smell of the books that filled it. After that he started to walk through the Archives, trying to find something and somewhere to read. _

_ Virgil had wandered up to the second floor of the Archives when he had stumbled upon Logan, sitting in an armchair in one of the larger nooks, reading a book. Virgil paused to try and turn around but it was already too late, Logan had spotted him. “Greetings, Virgil. Might I inquire as to the circumstances that bring you to the Archives today?” _

_ Virgil simply shrugged, shifting anxiously on his feet. Logan gave him a look and seemed to understand, “It was a busy day, for Thomas, wasn’t it?” _

_ Virgil startled by Logan’s question. Was it really that noticeable how he was doing? Logan took Virgil’s silence as an answer and simply gestured across from him to the other armchair in the nook. “Why don’t you sit down? The day was stressful for all of us. I can only imagine the impact that it has had on you.”  _

_ Virgil moved and sat down in the armchair, and once settled, Logan handed him a book. Virgil looked from him to the title and couldn’t help but chuckle. The book that Logan had handed to him was ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’. Logan looked back down at his own book in hand and simply said, “I always find that a quiet place and a good book can be quite relaxing.” _

_ After that Virgil settled down, opened up the book, and began reading. He could feel himself relax almost immediately. Guess a good book can do that for you. Virgil glanced over at Logan, whose face had softened while he was reading, and smiled affectionately. Well, a good book... and good company. _

_ __________ _

_ Patton… _

_ __________ _

_ It was late in the afternoon and Virgil was bored. He had been up in his room most of the day with his headphones in and lost in his thoughts. Wanting to get up and move around, he decides to move his brooding to the living room for a change of scenery. Taking his headphones off and resting them around his neck, he walks to his bedroom door and leaves. _

_ Walking down the stairs, Virgil could start to smell something sweet coming from the kitchen. Curiosity got the best of him and he changed his course to check it out. Walking to the kitchen, he had to cover his mouth to prevent himself from laughing out loud. Patton was baking what looked to be cookies, and he was humming and dancing, covered in flour. _

_ Patton spun around, mixing a bowl in his hand, and noticed Virgil. “Hey, kiddo! How’s it going? Haven’t seen you all day.” His smile was bright and wide on his face. _

_ Virgil couldn’t help the laugh that escaped as he walked towards Patton and started to dust some of the flour off of him. “I’ve had better days but you look like you’ve been attacked by the very cookies you are trying to make.” _

_ The giggle that left Patton’s mouth made the butterflies in Virgil’s stomach flutter. “Like I always say, kiddo, it’s only fun when it’s messy!” With that, Patton did another twirl back into the kitchen to continue cooking. Virgil followed after him, finding the display quite amusing, and moved to take his usual spot on the kitchen counter by the fridge. Patton had left the bowl he was mixing on the counter to take the next batch of cookies out of the oven and Virgil took the opportunity to grab the spoon on his way past. _

_ Patton turned to continue mixing when he noticed the absence of his spoon. He glanced around his cooking area quickly before stopping and turning to look at Virgil. Virgil took the spoon out of his mouth and looked innocently back at Patton, “Something wrong, Patton?” _

_ Virgil smiled when Patton let out an amused huff and turned to grab a different spoon from the silverware draw. Virgil thought he had won the battle, but his victory was short-lived. Next thing he knew, Patton grabbed a handful of flour, turned to face him, and blew it all over Virgil. Virgil blinked a couple times and then looked down at his now white clothes. Patton was nearly bent over laughing.  _

_ Virgil hopped off the counter, a cloud of white falling from him, and placed the spoon on the counter. Patton stopped laughing and looked at Virgil. Virgil smirked and opened his arms wide, “How bout a hug for you dark, strange son, Patton?” Virgil pushed forward and made to grab at Patton but Patton was too fast and ran away. Virgil chased Patton through the mind palace until he was able to tackle him down to the ground for a very floury hug. Both laid on the floor laughing and out of breath… that was until the smoke detector went off. _

_ __________ _

_ I know what I must do… I don’t want to, but I don’t have any other choice. I can’t hurt them anymore.  _ Virgil felt the tears streaming down his face as he came to a decision.

Up ahead, Virgil could see the rift between the Mindscape and the Darkscape appear. He was silently thankful that as they reached it the others didn’t stop, they just ran straight through. One by one he watched the other sides and Nyx go through. When it came to his turn, Virgil stopped dead in his tracks. He stared grievously at the rift and let out a mournful sob. “I can’t keep putting you guys in danger. This is a venture that I am going to have to continue  _ on my own _ …” 

Virgil wrapped his arms around himself as the tears continued to fall. He reached as far into himself as he could, searching for and summoning every last bit of power he had. He hiccuped, “I’m  _ so  _ sorry, guys! Please understand that I am doing this because I… I…Lo...” Virgil was unable to finish his statement as a cry ripped its way out of his throat. His power was building up fast, he had more left than he thought he did. His body spasmed as he tried to contain it for as long as he could. He bent forward and his arms tightened around his waist. 

__________

_ Off in the manor, hidden deep within the dark halls, hung the painting of the purple guardian. Slowly the color started to drain away. The sun and star completely faded from the picture and the moon grew, moving to hang over the now grey figure. The dark sludge started to really flow into reality as it ran from the painting and onto the black marble floor. An anguished cry echoed through the manor as it felt that fear had won. A huge crack appears right over where the guardian’s heart would lie. _

__________

Virgil screamed out into the forest as whatever power he had left burst out with one last powerful surge. Waves of purple energy blast out into the surrounding forest, destroying the area around him. The energy was strong enough that it completely destroyed the portal between the Mindscape and the Darkscape. Virgil stumbled forward and collapsed to the ground where the rift used to be. His last conscience thought before he passed out...

_ “Guess I really am the bad guy...” _


	18. Virgil's Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, We’re back at it with Part 2!
> 
> I am so excited for what’s to come and I hope you’re ready for it. Updates might still be slow because I’m writing two stories at once. I hope everyone is being safe out there with all this COVID-19 scare going on (trust me, as a retail worker whose job has been deemed “essential”, it’s a scary time). Please take care of yourselves and be mindful of those around you. 
> 
> Stay safe and healthy and I will see you all in the next chapter!  
-Alicemarie
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t claim any of the following events as true events in Thomas’ life. Besides some of the dates later on in the chapter that I googled (thank god for the internet) everything else is purely for the story.
> 
> Disclaimer: Trigger Warning

_ A young figment first manifested many years ago….  _

_ It was dark. He opened his eyes and he was surrounded by a long, dark hallway. He was curled into a ball on a rough, wooden floor. He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked around him. The wallpaper on the wall was grey, ripping, and molding. He looked down at himself and startled when he noticed that he was transparent and that little dark, purple particles were floating around him? ‘Where am I? What am I?’ _

_ He whimpered as a pounding pain pulsed through his head, his hands shot into his hair as he heard someone crying in his head. His sight went fuzzy as he started having visions of a young boy crying and scared. ‘What was going on?’ The small figment felt a surge of something from within him and watched as the faces of the people surrounding the boy started to distort and shift. ‘Who are these people? I don’t know any of them? I’m scared?’  _

_ The feeling within was building up faster than the young figment could handle. He curled into himself as the crying grew, echoing loudly in his head. Suddenly off in the distance he hears a woman's voice yell, “Thomas!” and slowly the crying went away and a safe feeling enveloped him. The feeling in him dulled and he was finally able to uncurl, he felt a little better, he knew this person… This person was safe. _

_ That day many years ago he learned a few things. _

  * _The person he was a part of was named ‘Thomas’_
  * There were many very scary things out in the world around him.
  * His job was to protect Thomas at all cost.

_ __________ _

_ Over the next few years the figment grew as Thomas grew. He outgrew the creatures in the closet and the monsters under the bed. As they grew older, the figment learned that there were even scarier things in the world. As they faced these scary things, the figment became more whole and his powers became stronger. _

_ As Thomas got older, he started to try new things, interact with different people. This was worrisome. ‘What if the thing failed? What if this person is pretending to be nice? How do I look? What do I do?’ all these and so many more questions were things that the figment kept running through Thomas’ head. Better to be safe than sorry. _

_ __________ _

_ When Thomas was in his early teens, the figment learned what he was. Thomas had been talking to someone about his worries and fears, and then the person said a word. One little word that felt right to him. Anxiety. _

_ That’s what I am. ‘I am Anxiety’. For the first time a small smile made its way onto his face. He knew what he was. Anxiety’s happiness (could he even call it that?) was short lived because the person Thomas was talking to started giving him advice on how to get rid of his anxiety. That his anxiety was a bad thing. _

_ ‘Get rid of his anxiety? Why would he want to get rid of me? I’m not a bad thing. I protect him! Right?...’  _

_ Anxiety watched as shadow creatures started to form in the hallway he was wandering through. Fear shot through him and instead of calming his abilities, they raged forth. Anxiety ran away from the monsters of his own creation. Thomas ran away as well. _

_ __________ _

_ Anxiety became a full side when Thomas was in high school. Thomas’ anxiety was prevalent and Anxiety’s presence was well known. Anxiety also learned what he wanted his name to be. Thomas’ English class was talking about poets and one name came up that Anxiety liked. Virgil. Protector. ‘I like it… Virgil, Thomas’ anxiety’. The small smile that had made its way onto his face turned into a frown as Virgil’s heart sank, ‘Not that Thomas will ever see me as such…’ _

_ ________ _

_ Over the following years Virgil became a more prominent part of Thomas’ life. Virgil watched from the prison that was the Darkscape Manor as Thomas grew and matured. _

_ He started YouTube in 2009. Graduated from college with a degree in Chemical Engineering in 2011 (college was an awful time for Virgil!). Thomas’ anxiety spiked when he started putting himself more out there in 2013 when he started posting videos on Vine. During these times it was almost unbearable how much effort Virgil had to put in to make sure that Thomas didn’t create or post anything stupid… These were the only times he was able to sense the presence of the light sides. _

_ He had encountered Deceit and the Duke multiple times within the manor. They both unnerved him and made him worry about how much influence they had on Thomas. Lying and a dark creative side, not a good pairing. It could have been worse though, much worse with the other beings locked away in the manor’s upper floors.  _

_ Virgil had always known the light sides were there, beyond some unseen exit from the hell he existed in, but he could never figure out how to get to them. _

_ When the creative process started, Virgil could watch it unfold. He saw Thomas’ light creativity, Roman, come up with ideas and skits. Virgil put a stop to anything embarrassing or outlandish. Thomas’ logic, Logan, read through and made sure the idea was sound and made sense. Virgil made sure that it was safe and covered any possible outcome or reaction that may come from posting it. Lastly, Thomas’ morality, Patton, gave the idea love and life. Virgil soaked in whatever little bit of warmth he could from those moments, trying to keep whatever negativity that might develop at bay.  _

_ He didn’t know if the others knew of his existence, but he knew of them, and he desperately wished to be with them and able to help Thomas as they were allowed to.  _

_ __________ _

_ 2015 was the year that Virgil finally escaped into the Mindscape. Everything was overwhelming. Virgil’s head was constantly pounding and the manor was suffocating him. He couldn’t bear it much longer, and he could tell it was weighing heavily on Thomas and the light sides as well. _

_ Virgil was staggering through the manor. The pounding made it hard to focus so he had no idea where he was going. He walked on and on, leaning heavily on the wall for support, he eventually came upon a large wooden door. His thoughts were fuzzy but he was pretty sure that he had never seen the door before in his twenty years of existence. Grabbing the handle of the unknown door, Virgil twisted the knob and shoved it open. Virgil hissed at the grey light that illuminated the dimly lit halls. _

_ Beyond the door laid a destroyed courtyard with a rusted, iron fence bordering it. Beyond that was a forest. ‘The Forest for Unwanted Thought? Is… Is this the outside?’ Virgil looked back towards the endless hallway and shivered. Against everything telling him not to leave, Virgil turned back towards the doorway and stepped outside. _

_ Virgil almost exhaled in relief as a large weight was lifted off his shoulder. He took a deep breath of the air outside, and thought it was a little musty, it was certainly better than the air inside the manor. With head still pounding, Virgil took shaky steps down from the porch, through the courtyard, and out past the gates. _

_ The farther away he got, the more free he felt. He went from staggering steps, to speed walking, to eventually running, just to get away from his prison. Virgil didn’t know where he was going, but at that moment he didn’t care, he just wanted to get away. He ran through the forest along a barely there path. He ran till he couldn’t anymore, then stopped.  _

_ He spun around and looked at the surrounding area. He was dizzy from running and the pounding had gotten worse. All he saw around him was the fuzzy images of dead trees. He glanced to the side and saw a cracked rock sitting at the edge of the path, deciding he needed a break, he walked over to it and went to sit down on it. Except he didn’t. _

_ He fell backwards, felt a quick ~woosh~ of air, and landed on his back, head smacking against the ground. Virgil groaned and tried to open his eyes but was blinded by a bright light. Virgil covered his eyes with the palms of his hands and tried to collect his thoughts. He couldn’t. His thoughts were jumbled and lost in the pain. After a few minutes, Virgil tried again. He forced himself to roll over, so he was on his stomach, and then pushed himself onto his hands and knees with achy arms. _

_ Waiting for the dizziness to pass. Virgil slowly opened his eyes, blinking multiple times to try and let his eyes adjust, he looked in front of him and held his breath. ‘What is this? Are those… Flowers?’. Looking ahead of him he was surrounded by endless green fields with a variety of flowers and colors. The sky was blue overhead with white, fluffy clouds and a warm sun. ‘This isn’t real. I’m dreaming. It feels so warm~.” For so long Virgil had been trapped in the cold, darkness of the manor and now he was being embraced by warmth and light. ‘Where am I?’. _

_ Getting up on wobbly feet, Virgil glanced with blurry vision to the left and then to the right, and he thought he had officially gone crazy because he felt as though something was calling him from that direction. He frowned but felt his feet start to drag themselves in that direction. The fields blurred the longer he walked. He started to stumble along the path. He was exhausted. _

_ After a while he made it over a hill and he saw a house sitting at the end of the pathway. It was a large, white house. The house was two stories and had a porch with a swing. Beautiful, rose bushes lined the outside. Virgil felt a pull towards the house and staggered his way to the porch. All he could think about was why did he need to get to this house? Why was he supposed to be here?  _

_ He stumbled up the porch and walked to the door and stopped. His foggy mind was trying to make sense of the situation, but he couldn’t put any of his thoughts together. He shakily raised his hand and knocked on the door. The last conscious thing he heard was another voice freaking out and arms catching him as he collapsed. _

_ Virgil eventually woke up in a soft couch to find three curious faces staring at him. He startled so much by their presence that he tumbled out of the couch and onto the floor, pushing himself into a corner and as far away from the three figures in the room. One in a vaguely familiar light, blue polo slowly walked up to him and helped to calm him down. When he was calmed down enough, the three sides introduced themselves as Roman, Patton, and Logan… Thomas’ light sides. _

_ Virgil faltered in his response. He had been waiting for what felt like forever to meet the three sides and now he was sitting in the same room as them. His heart started to race. What was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to say? If he told them who he was, would they turn him away? Would they send him back?! He didn’t want to go back. Not now. Not ever. He shrank into himself, curling up, pulling his hood over his head, and wrapped his arms around his legs. The look of concern on their faces made him feel even worse. After some coaxing, Virgil eventually did introduce himself,  _

_ ‘I am… Anxiety.’ _

_ __________ _

_ The rest of 2015 and almost all of 2016 was rough. The other sides hadn’t taken too kindly to Virgil’s reveal (though they only knew of him as Anxiety at that point) but they didn’t send him away. At the very end of the second floor hallway, a room appeared, his room appeared. It was his safe space. He generally tended to avoid the others as much as possible because being near them made him anxious. Made him scared he would mess up and they would send him back to the Darkscape. _

_ Patton was the first to accept him, the only one to accept him, during that time. Patton would call Virgil his ‘dark, strange son’ and though Virgil would grimace and argue against the nickname, he actually liked it.  _

_ It was December 2016 when Virgil made his first official appearance in Thomas’ Sanders Sides Series, which was really stressful but also very invigorating. Though Virgil was Thomas’ anxiety, he was using him to help others. He was allowing him to appear before his audience and be himself. He started to express himself more and he felt, for the first time, like he was actually a ‘good’ thing. _

_ __________ _

_ 2017 was one of the hardest years anxiety had to face, but it also was the best year he had ever lived through as well. So much happened. _

_ Vine ended, Thomas started to focus more on YouTube, his tour (sorry couldn’t find the actual dates just this year), he had so many opportunities come about. He also came out to the public which was a very anxious time for Virgil. Thomas had grown and matured so much. _

_ Virgil would like to say that he had grown as well. Through various videos and experiences in the Mindscape, Virgil started to get along better with the other sides, they started to develop an understanding of each other and how valuable each of them were to Thomas.  _

_ In June of 2017, things had gotten bad. He didn’t know why, the four of them (five if you count Thomas) had come a long way, but Virgil felt he wasn’t wanted. Wasn’t needed. So he shut the door to his room and locked himself and his presence away. He thought it would solve all their problems. He was wrong.  _

_ They came for him. They did the stupid thing and used their abilities to get into Virgil’s room and they convinced him that he was wanted. He was needed. Virgil opened up his room again and got them out of there before it affected them too negatively. When they had finally gotten back to the main space and had a heart-to-heart, Virgil finally told the others his name.  _

_ __________ _

_ That was the beginning of wonderful friendship and growth among the four sides… And the start of Virgil denying to himself any feelings that he may have for the others.  _

_ He was accepted. He had a positive role to play in Thomas’ life as well as the Fanders’ lives. He had received a surprising amount of love and support and it was elating. _

_ He spent more time around the others as well. He cooked with Patton. He read and discussed theories with Logan. He had long Disney marathons and debates with Roman. As time went on he settled down and started to enjoy the chance he was given to finally be with the others. _

_ He was no longer alone.  _

_ He was happy. _

_ __________ _

Oh, how that all can change so fast...


	19. After the Darkscape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter! It's short, but its a chapter.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Stay safe and healthy,  
-Alicemarie

_ When Patton, Logan, and Roman ran through the rift, the sky was grey. They looked around them in surprise at their surroundings. The colors had dulled and a strong wind blew through the fields causing the three to cover their faces to protect them from the force. A rumble ran through the ground.  _

_ The three were still in shock about their surroundings when a sudden sinking feeling settled in their hearts. Turning around they actually saw where the rift between the Mindscape and the Darkscape was. Stretching up from the cracked rock, was a large (probably around 7ft tall) black, blue, and white fracture hanging in the air. Purple sparks shot out from the fracture and it seemed that the fracture was shaking.  _

_ Roman moved forward towards the rift while Logan and Patton watched after him. Slowly, Roman stepped closer, looking hesitantly at the rift. Placing his hand on his katana, he called out for the last remaining side that hadn’t made it through, “Virgil?” _

_ A huge purple wave shot out from the portal blasting the three sides backwards, into the flower fields. The force from the blast put the three sides in a daze. With a groan of pain, they each were able to slowly push themselves up into sitting positions. They looked towards the rift to try and figure out what caused the wave, to see that it was gone. _

_ Where the rift had been, was now a shallow hole. Scorch marks stretched out from the center where the only remaining evidence of the rift remained. The cracked rock laid in the center of the hole, completely split in two, both halves were a couple inches apart. _

_ They all gasped in shock. Roman unsteadily pushed himself to his feet and ran towards where the rift was supposed to be. Stumbling down into the hole he tried to where the portal was, but to no avail. The rift was gone. There was no longer a way to get from the Mindscape to the Darkscape… Or from the Darkscape to the Mindscape.  _

_ “Virgil!” cried out Roman as he sank to his knees between the two rock halves, tears streaming down his face. Patton curled into Logan, hugging him and soaking his chest with tears. Logan stared blankly at where Roman was kneeling, silent tears fell down as he tried to wrap his mind about what was happening. His arms slowly wrapped around Patton, the only thing he could mutter, “Why…” _

_ When they had eventually returned to the mind palace that day, both Roman and Logan had disappeared into their individual rooms, leaving Patton all alone in the living room. Patton hugged himself as he stared at the stairs where the others had left. Glancing to the side, fresh tears made their way to his eyes as he noticed Virgil’s jacket that he had left on the couch before they left.  _

_ Patton slowly walked around the couch and lifted up the hoodie, unzipping it, he put the hoodie on and curled up into the corner of the couch. The jacket was large on him and hung on him loosely. It was warm and still smelled like Virgil. For a moment, it made Patton feel that Virgil was right there hugging him and the pain in his chest grew. _

_ __________ _

It had been a couple days since they returned from the Darkscape and nothing had gone back to normal, but why would it? Since then, Patton had seen very little of the others.

Roman spent his days within the Daydream territory. He would disappear into the fields and mountains for hours on end, fighting whatever creature and facing whatever dangerous scenario he could. Roman would reappear late at night, battered and injured. He would give a quick nod to Patton and then go upstairs to his room to deal with his injuries on his own.

Logan would disappear to the Archives of Knowledge. Patton was pretty sure he was stressing himself out with trying to find a way to get back into the Darkscape in order for them to rescue Virgil (along with Deceit and Remus). The one time he had gone to bring Logan food, the nook he called his office was a mess. Books were stacked in mountains or in piles on the floor. His whiteboard was littered with a mess of note and papers were scattered all over the place. When he absentmindedly reached for his food, Patton saw that more notes were written along his arms as well.

The sky remained grey and a light rain had started and hadn’t stopped since. Patton had long since given up trying to distract himself. There were only so many chores and activities that he could do to try and help him forget what was happening. He had gotten used to making food and putting it in tupperware for whenever the two others decided to come around and eat. He would clean for a short while in the morning and then he would go outside onto the porch, wrap himself tighter in Virgil’s hoodie (he refused to take it off), and spend his day zoning out on the porch swing. 

Nights were the worst. The first night after they returned, Patton had a horrible nightmare. It had involved Virgil and a terrifying sludge monster that swallowed him whole. Patton had woken up yelling, shaking, and in a state of panic. He had grabbed the comforter off his bed and wrapped it around himself, walking outside his room, he walked down the end of the hallway where Virgil’s door had used to be (it had disappeared when he and the rift disappeared), and curled into the corner of the hallway.

He hadn’t been there long before Roman and Logan had appeared before him in the hallway. Neither of them had said anything but from the looks on their faces, it looked like they could have had the same nightmare he had. They moved forward and sat down on the floor next to Patton (who opened up his covers for the others to tuck in to). They had fallen asleep curled up together on the floor that night. 

After that they had come to a silent decision that they were going to sleep in the same room after that. They rotated between the three rooms. When one would wake from a nightmare the other two would be there to comfort them. It helped them sleep a little better at night, but not by much. In the morning Patton would wake up to an empty bed. He would go about his daily routine both dreading and looking forward to night time when he would get to spend time with the other two.

Patton sat and wondered what they were going to do from here. He stared sadly up at the grey sky as he shivered. 

What was going to happen next? To them? To Thomas? To Deceit and Remus? 

To Virgil?


	20. We Need to Get Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter!
> 
> Thanks for the continued support! I love reading through the comments and seeing your reactions.
> 
> I hope you enjoy and I will see you in the next chapter.
> 
> Stay safe and healthy!  
-Alicemarie
> 
> (There is a Trigger Warning)

It was another grey day. Patton sat tightly curled up in Virgil’s hoodie on the porch swing. The wind blew harsher this day than it had on previous ones. Patton stared out as the rain fell down into the already drowned surrounding fields of the Mindscape. It had been so long since he had last seen the blue sky, felt the warm heat of the sun, or smelled the flowers being blown with the soft breeze. Patton’s frown deepened. 

_ What would even be the point? Without all four of us here together…  _

Patton drew the hoodie closer to him, drawing his knees closer to his chest he felt a fresh wave of tears threaten to make their appearance. He was lost in his thoughts but he could vaguely hear himself humming “You Are My Sunshine”. The dark clouds continued to roll across the sky.

Behind him, Patton heard the palace door open and the creaking of the porch boards as someone approached him. He felt the swing shift as the other person sat down next to him. Turning his head, he saw that Roman had joined him. 

Roman wasn’t in his usual princely attire. Today it seemed that he settled for a pair of blue skinny jeans, a red flannel shirt, and a pair of red converse. You could see the light curls in his brown hair as it wasn’t done up like it usually was either. The usual gold flecks in his brown eyes were dulled to a rusty bronze, his entire face weighted down by guilt and sadness from losing Virgil.

Upon noticing Patton’s gaze, Roman leaned back and raised one of his arms up. Patton was confused for only a moment before taking the gesture and moving himself to curl up under Roman’s arm. Once Patton was in place, Roman’s arm wrapped protectively around him and the two sat in silence as they continued to stare out into the field.

“I hate it. I  _ hate  _ this.”

Patton looked up at Roman’s face, it was filled with anger and frustration. Patton could feel that Roman was slightly shaking behind him, from anger or sadness he couldn’t tell at this point. He wouldn’t say it out loud, but he hated it too. 

“I’ve searched high and low. Through every bit of both the Imagination and the Daydream territories that I could reach and I can’t find  _ anything _ . No magical witch or mystical creature has been able to answer my questions. Guide my quest. I feel like such a failure! What kind of  _ prince  _ can’t fight off the monsters! Can’t  _ save  _ the day!”

Patton scooched away as he watched as Roman roughly pushed himself off the swing in frustration. His hands were clenched into fists as he started yelling through his anger.

“I  _ ran  _ away! I left when faced with danger. I left Deceit and Remus,  _ my own brother _ , behind! 

Lightning flashed across the sky and thunder roared in the distance. The more worked up Roman became the worse the rain started to pour. Roman’s hands made their way into his hair. Everything that he had been holding in, spilling out in that moment.

“I couldn’t protect them! I could hardly protect  _ you _ ! I couldn’t even protect…  _ Virgil. _ ”

Roman’s shoulders slumped and stood defeated in front of Patton. His arms had dropped to his sides and his head hung low. His shaking was now visible and Patton could hear quiet sobs coming from him. Patton stood up from his spot and walked over to Roman. He stood in front of him and raised his hands. He held Roman’s face and looked up at him. Using his thumbs he wiped away the tears that were falling. Roman’s lip quivered.

“We… We did everything we could while we were back in the Darkscape. We faced many challenges and creatures that none of us could ever have even imagined. We fought till we couldn’t anymore and we left with the full intention of going back.”

Roman’s head slipped from Patton’s hands and onto his shoulder. His arms wrapped around Patton’s waist and pulled him close. In turn, Patton’s arms reached up and wrapped themselves around his neck, one of his hands gently corded through Roman’s hair.

“None of us thought things would go this way… None of us expected things to take a turn for the worse. We didn’t abandon them. We can’t think like that. We can’t lose hope that there is some answer out there that will lead us back to the manor… And back to Virgil.”

Roman raised his head and Patton saw that a little bit of hope flickered in them. Letting his hands fall from Roman’s shoulders to his chest, he smiled sweetly up at him, Patton soaked in the warmth that Roman’s hope radiated. He looked up at Roman and firmly said, “We can’t let this be the end.”

“We won’t let this be the end.” Roman said with determination, fire now burning brighter than it had before in his eyes. He gazed softly at Patton and a small, affectionate smile made its way onto his face, “I don’t know how you can do this. We are so lost right now but then you somehow manage to calm us down, give us hope.”

“I don’t know how I do it either.” Patton said with a slight shrug. “I hardly believe the things I say when I’m by myself, but… When you and Logan are close to me, and I think of having Virgil back here with us, I have more confidence in what I’m saying and the truth behind those words. You give me the strength to believe and I could only hope that I do the same for you.”

Roman felt his heart flutter, he grabbed Patton’s hand and tugged him towards the palace door, “Let’s go see what Specs is up to. Maybe he has had better luck than I have.”

__________

Roman and Patton had made their way to the Archives of Knowledge through the portal in Logan’s room. When they had reached the Archives, Patton led the way to where Logan’s study was (hand still clasped with Roman’s). They walked up the stairs and walked the short way along the second story walkway. When they finally reached the study they were completely stunned.

The first thing that caught them off guard was the state that the study was in. Since the last time Patton had been there, the mess had gotten worse. Books were piled everywhere, stacked taller than all of them. The two chairs that were in the nook had been pushed to the very back corner and were covered with books that were filled with various colored sticky notes. Papers and whiteboards covered the walls and were filled with notes and had different colored strings connecting different pieces of information. There was a distinct path that led between all the piles. In the center of the room sat the other thing that caught them off guard.

Logan sat on the floor surrounded by books, that wasn’t what caught them off guard though. What caught both Roman and Patton off guard was his appearance.

Logan wore a pair of grey sweatpants and a tight fitting long sleeve shirt, sleeves pushed up to his elbows. His glasses sat slightly crooked on his face and his hair wasn’t slicked back like usual. The most surprising thing was his arms, they were covered in blue writing. The pen he must have been using for those notes was hanging loosely from his lips as his eyes were focused on the book he was currently reading through.

Patton stared wide eyed while Roman shifted his position, hands resting on his hips, he let out a low whistle, “Hot damn.”

Logan startled upon hearing Roman’s comment, pen dropping from his lips, his head whipped to look at the other two sides standing at the entrance into his study. Logan let out a stuttered breath and ran his hand through his messy hair. Fixing his glasses, he readjusted his sitting position so that he was able to face the other two comfortably. “Patton. Roman. What an unexpected visit.”

Patton and Roman carefully made their way over to Logan through all the clutter. Patton sat next to Logan and Roman kneeled in front of him. Logan looked at both of them quizzically, “Might I inquire as to what you two are doing here?”

“We came to see how you were doing, Lo.” Patton looked at him as he bumped their shoulders together.

“We also came to see if you were having any better luck than I was when it came to finding a way back into the Darkscape. Based on the unusual mess that is currently surrounding us… I’m guessing not.”

Logan looked from Patton to Roman and then down to the book he was reading and sighed. He closed the book, tossed it to the side, and then leaned back onto his hands. “I have found nothing. The Archives contain none of the information I seek. I have searched high and low with no sign of a book that contains anything close to useful. Not even the Old Legend (I named the book that Logan uses in the Darkscape) holds anything that can help, the story ends after the  _ Great Sacrifice _ .”

Patton’s eyebrows furrowed at the clear exhaustion in Logan’s voice as well as the dark circles that were apparent under his eyes. Looking around them Patton felt himself shrink by how tight the place felt.  _ I thought my room was messy. How is anyone supposed to think when they are cramped in such a small feeling place? _

With that thought in mind, Patton stood up and stretched his arms over his head. He reached both of his hands out, one to Roman and the other to Logan, and made grabby hands at their questioning looks. “Let’s move somewhere else. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think clearly when I feel overwhelmed and cramped. We might have a better chance if we have somewhere more comfortable and open to think.”

Roman and Logan looked at each other and then grabbed Patton’s hands to help themselves up. Patton kept a firm hold on their hands as he led them out of Logan’s study and down the stairs into the common space. Roman moved to his chair by the fireplace and Logan and Patton took their places on the couch opposite of him, all three sides trying to ignore the missing presence from the pillow pile near Roman’s chair.

After a few minutes of silence, Roman leaned forward in his chair, elbows resting on his knees and head resting on his clasped hands. “Where do we go from here? I’ve searched for answers through the Daydream and Imagination territories. Logan’s searched through the Archives for answers, and neither of us have found anything.”

Logan rubbed his hand across his face, “I have no idea. Information about the Darkscape is limited since the two don’t particularly exist in the same mental plane. They coexist as halves of a whole, opposites of each other which is why the rifts exist between the two. Since traveling between the two is extremely limited due to the severe negative effects that occur to those beings that travel across, it's nearly impossible to find information about the other when searching through either plane.”

Patton sat dumbfounded by Logan’s explanation.  _ So… He’s saying that information about the Mindscape and the Darkscape exists only in that particular mental plane. Traveling is limited and dangerous, but it is possible. We can travel between the two if we know where to look, but… how do we know where to look?  _

Patton’s eyes widened as a thought passed over him, “Wait!”

Logan and Roman’s looked towards Patton in shock. Patton jumped up and moved to stand in between the two. “Didn’t Virgil mention something about where rifts appear?”

Roman and Logan’s eyebrows furrowed in thought before both their faces lit up as well.

“When we first entered into the Darkscape, Virgil mentioned that the rifts appear in plain sight and they appear based on how influential one or the other plane is.” Patton continued.

Roman jumped up from his chair as well. “He also mentioned something in the Darkchives!” He had a large grin on his face as he looked between the other two.

“Of course… He talked about the coexistence of the two planes as well as how information was shared and stored. If I remember correctly. He talked about the rift existing between the Field for Wandering Thoughts and Forest for Unwanted Thoughts due to the close relation between them.” Logan stood up and continued, replaying the conversation in his head.

“He said along with the Fields and Forest… the next possible place that a rift might exist would be between…”

“The Archives and the Darkchives!”

All three practically yelled through their excitement. They had all been so focused on finding answers that they had overlooked the fact that they already had one. Roman pulled both Logan and Patton to him in a bone crushing hug, spinning them around. He placed them down and looked at them both, practically vibrating in his place.

Patton fixed Virgil’s hoodie and Logan readjusted his shirt and glasses. Looking around at the Archives, Logan turned back to the other two. “Alright, gentlemen. We need to spread look for any possible spot that a rift could exist. We have a lot of ground to cover but it’s all we currently have to work with.” 

Logan saw the determination written on both Roman and Patton’s faces. He nodded his head and looked towards the endless shelves of books behind them.

“Let’s find our way back into the Darkscape.


	21. Emotions of the Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone!
> 
> To celebrate the new Sanders Sides video, I found a little motivation to make a new chapter!
> 
> (Spoilers!!!) Like can we take a moment to appreciate how good the episode was, though my heart is broken. My poor babies!!! Patton and Roman deserved NONE of that (especially Roman). Also, Deceit's name is interesting, isn't it? I'm still going to refer to him as Deceit for most of the fic but I may throw his real name in there every now and then. Also, that little teaser for a possible new dark side! I'm so excited to see what happens next! 
> 
> There's a little bit of sad times (trigger warning) and a little bit of fluffy times.  
I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
> 
> -Stay Safe and Healthy!  
Alicemarie

Logan, Patton and Roman spent the whole afternoon searching through the archives.

Roman searched throughout the first floor, Logan searched the second floor and Patton went through every nook he could find. They searched everywhere they could reach. Behind furniture, around bookcases, and in every nook and cranny. The Archives were huge and they barely even looked through a fraction of it by the time dinner rolled around.

The three sides met up in the common space after a few hours. They each wore the same exhausted and defeated looks on their faces. Logan sat down in Roman’s chair and Roman sat down on the arm next to him, neither arguing with the other about where they were sitting. Patton stood in front of them and wrapped his arms around himself. 

Roman was the first to speak with a huff and crossing his arms over his chest, “It doesn’t seem like we are making  _ any _ progress. The Archives are huge and seemingly endless, we really didn’t think this through, did we?”

“It’s not that we didn’t think this through, Roman.” Logan pat Roman’s leg next to him (letting his hand rest there afterwards), “We made the assumption, during our excitement, that since we knew  _ where _ to look that we knew  _ what  _ we were looking for.” Logan stated this and sighed and ran his hand (that was resting on Roman’s leg) through his hair. 

Roman looked down at him and let out a small laugh when he noticed that some of Logan’s hair was sticking up. Roman reached over and ran his fingers through Logan’s hair, fixing it. “Well, what are we looking for, Specs?” he questioned him. 

Logan looked between Roman and Patton (who was being unusually quiet) and leaned back into the chair, eyebrows furrowing. He let himself think through the scenario and tried to come up with a possible solution. A slight ruffle caught his attention and his eyes turned to Patton.

Patton shifted in his spot anxiously, “Since you two are figuring that out, I’m going to head back home and grab us something to eat. I don’t think any of us have eaten anything since breakfast this morning.” To add on to this his stomach grumbled (quite loudly), both Logan and Roman stared at him for a few seconds before they burst out with laughter.

“Dinner sounds great, Pat” Roman said through their laughter. “While Logan and I start working on trying to figure out  _ what  _ we’re looking for, you getting food sounds like an excellent idea.” After their laughter died down, Patton left quickly for the Mind Palace while Roman and Logan stayed behind to get to work.

__________

When Patton entered Logan's room, his shoulders slumped and he exhaled the breath he had been holding. The painting slid back into its place in front of the portal and Patton leaned back against it, hearing the light  _ *thump*  _ of his head as he let it fall back onto the painting. Everything was overwhelming and he was having a hard time holding it together. 

Now don’t get him wrong, he was overjoyed with the possibility of getting back to Virgil and bringing him home… That wasn’t the problem.

The main concern Patton had was that they had to go back into the Darkscape. He displayed fake confidence while they were last there last time because that’s what the others needed from him. He gave off strength, comfort, and positivity because he knew that his emotions greatly affected how the others were feeling. 

The truth of the matter was, Patton was terrified. 

Patton felt tears start to fall as he let out a whimper. Up until now, the only time he had had any sort of breakdown was from the nightmares. Usually he tried to block out everything, it wasn’t like him but he didn’t know what else to do. Patton slid to the floor, He pulled the hood of Virgil’s jacket over his head and curled in on himself. 

His thoughts wandered back into the Darkscape manor and his body started to shake. There were so many things that terrified him. It was dark and cold. There was always an overwhelming feeling of despair that hung in the air. Screams of fear and anger echoed through the halls from unknown beings within the manor. Danger lurked around every corner, in every room, and Patton didn’t know what to expect.

Yes they had really cool powers (that he was certain they barely scratched the limits of) but they could only do so much. They were inexperienced (Well except Roman and Virgil) and it really showed. They faced terrifying challenges and monsters alike… Patton didn’t want any of them to go through that again. He didn’t want Virgil, Remus, or Deceit to be stuck in any of that anymore, either.

Patton knew that Logan and Roman would start to wonder soon where he was, but he knew he wasn’t in any way emotionally ready to head back to the Archives just yet. 

He gave himself some time to calm down before getting up and heading downstairs to figure out what he was going to take to the other two for dinner.

__________

Logan and Roman had watched Patton leave to head back to the palace, before they turned to each other with worried glances. 

“Did you notice Patton’s slight mood change?” Roman asked Logan with concern. 

“This is a very stressful situation for all of us, Roman.” Logan’s gaze moved to look at the portal located in the Archives, Roman nodded in agreement and motioned for Logan to continue.

“For the last two weeks, both of us have spent most of our time outside the Mind palace and away from each other. Any emotions he’s had in that time frame, he hasn’t had to hide or hold in, though I’m almost certain he has.” Logan frowned as he continued. 

“We probably only just now noticed since we have been with him for an extended period of time. With how fast the situation has progressed in such a short time today, my assumption would be that, through everything, many old and new emotions probably surfaced and he was unable to properly suppress them before we noticed. That’s most likely why he excused himself to go get food when he did.”

“Then why didn’t he tell us? Why didn’t he  _ talk  _ to us?” Roman practically pleaded for the answer.

“Patton is the embodiment of Thomas’ morality and controls many of his emotions. As you know, Patton’s emotions affect us almost as much as Thomas’ emotions do.” Logan stood up from the chair and took a few steps forward. He looked at the flames that burned in the fireplace for a moment before continuing. “He probably felt that his emotions would be a burden to us as we, ourselves, dealt with the situation in our own manners.”

“That’s the same way Virgil is…” Roman’s heart sank as he came to that conclusion. 

Logan nodded and looked to the ground, frown deepening on his face. “Both Patton and Virgil eventually confess to us their true thoughts or emotions when they are ready. All that we can do is make it evident that we are here to listen and will be consistently judgement free.”

“Roman. Right now we need to focus on finding our entrance back into the Darkscape and getting Virgil, Remus, and Deceit safely back into the Mindscape.” Logan observed the grimace forming on Roman’s face at the mention of the Darkscape.

Roman after a few seconds pushed up off the arm of the chair and walked to stand in front of Logan, looking him in the eyes. Concern and fear were evident in Logan’s eyes as they held Roman’s. Suddenly, Roman reached forward and pulled Logan into a hug. 

“Roman! What are you doing?” Logan asked, startled as he wiggled in Roman’s grasp.

“You looked like you could use a hug.” Logan stalled his struggling

“You know I’m not one who particularly enjoys physical affection, right?” Logan felt himself relax as Roman pulled him closer.

“I know.” A soft chuckle escaped from Roman’s mouth. “You are terrible about asking for affection. I don’t know if it’s because you think you are too cool for it or if you don’t think you need it… or if you think it's selfish to want it…”

Logan’s head fell to Roman’s shoulder as Roman’s arms tightened around him. A mixture of warmth and guilt flowing through him at that moment. 

“It's okay to ask for someone to be near you or comfort you when you want it. You may be the backbone that usually guides our problems to solutions with your sound logic, but you don’t always have to be strong and alone. We are by your side. Especially when things are hard.”

Roman felt the silent tears on his shoulder even if he couldn’t see them. “Like you said, it is a stressful time and none of us have dealt with emotions effectively. We are scared, and angry, and worried, and so many other emotions.” Roman let out a heavy sigh as he rested his head on Logan’s. 

“It is okay to be selfish every once in a while. Nobody expects you to be perfect, Logan.”

Logan’s hands held onto Roman’s shirt as he let his emotions out, “You want to know something else, Lo?” Roman asked.

“At this moment, I’m being a little selfish too.”


	22. Return to the Manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone!
> 
> Next chapter is up and ready. I'm not gonna lie, I had some fun writing a part of this chapter because I got to do a little bit of fun research (no spoilers right here, just read, you'll understand). I just want to preface that I tried to stick as close to their characters as possible.
> 
> Also, 1000 hits! That's wild. Never would have thought I'd have that many people reading into this story (yes I know it's not 1000 individual people, but still). You guys are amazing and I love the continued love, support, comments, and patience you guys have given me in the last 7 months since I started this story. Thank you!
> 
> \- Stay safe and healthy and I will see you again in the next chapter!  
Alicemarie

When Patton finally returned to the Archives, Roman and Logan had set up the common area by pushing furniture back a little and setting up a white board that they already had some notes written down on.

“Ah, Patton! You’ve returned.”

The two greeted him as he set out their dinner on the coffee table. When deciding what to grab for them to eat he had some trouble, not because there wasn’t any food in the fridge (there was), the trouble came from the fact that he wasn’t really feeling hungry. In the end he settled on some spaghetti that he had made the night before. He heated it up, wrapped it in a towel to keep warm, packed some plates and utensils, and made his way back.

Patton served himself some spaghetti and sat down in the corner of the couch. “So what were you guys talking about before I got back?” He questioned before taking a bite out of his food.

“We were just writing down the information that we have already acquired.” Logan answered him while he followed Roman to get himself some food.

“We can talk about that in a little bit though. Let’s eat! Can’t go making any rescue plans on an empty stomach.” Roman exclaimed. He served himself up some food and moved to sit on the couch. When he got to the couch he sat down next to Patton. Logan pulled the armchair over so that it was near the others and started eating himself.

Patton was curious about why the two were sitting so close to him, but at that moment he wasn’t going to complain. He unconsciously snuggled into Roman’s side as he took another bite of food, while focusing on his food he missed the small smiles shared between Roman and Logan.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, each thinking about getting back into the Darkscape. Eventually they all finished their food and pushed the dishes off to the side. They all turned their attention back to the whiteboard that Logan and Roman had set up in the middle of the common space.

Roman and Patton were still sitting on the couch while Logan stepped forwards towards the board, holding a blue expo marker, “So what do we know about rifts that will help us to find them?”

Roman was the first to answer, “Well, Virgil did mention that the rifts appear in plain sight.” Logan nodded then wrote this down.

“There is also something that indicates where the rift is? Like how the rift between the field and the forest was the cracked rock.” Patton added in after Roman. Logan thought this over and then added this to the board as well. 

“So, if the rift would be in plain sight with an indicator, where would it be in the Archives? This place is huge.” Roman questioned. He gestured to the wide space that was the Archives, endless rows of bookshelves lined the seemingly endless room.

“My best assumption is that the location would be somewhere that we frequent here in the Archives.” Logan answered back to him.

“So somewhere like here in the common space?” Patton asked.

“That would be a safe guess.”

“Haven’t we thoroughly searched through here already?” Roman asked, annoyed. He huffed and leaned back into the couch.

“Obviously not in the way that we should be.” Logan stated

“What does that mean?” Patton questioned.

“Well, we need to look in plain sight. Which means we need to look right in front of us.” Logan took a few steps away from the board and slowly started to look around him at the common space.

Roman stood up and walked over to stand next to Logan. Placing his hands on his hips he asked, “So what do you suggest we do?” 

“We look from where we stand.” Logan answered, gesturing towards the ground.

“Okay?” Patton now had joined the two sides in the middle of the common space.

“Instead of looking around objects and moving furniture, speeding through the Archives, we stand here, in the middle of the common space, and just look around for anything that seems out of place.” Logan said, firmly.

Patton gently placed a hand on his arm, “You really think it will help? You really think the rift is here?”

Logan looked between him and Roman softly, “It’s all we have to go on right now. We need to work with what we have.”

With that being said, the three sides moved to take their places. They stood back-to-back in the center of the Archive common space and looked around them. None of them knew if this would lead to any results, but it was all they had to work with.

They all looked around the room. They looked to the two staircases that lead up to the second floor. They looked around the fireplace that lit the room with a warm glow. Bookcases lined the walls and stood up in rows. Everything had a place. Still, they scanned the room, standing nearly still for a few minutes.

They were about to give up the search when something caught Roman’s eye. It wasn’t much, but there the corner of the common space between one of the big windows and a wall, was a small crack. It was only a foot, maybe a foot and a half long and rested a few feet off the floor. Never before had Roman seen any sort of disrepair within the Archives, which made this crack stand out more.

Walking away from the others, Roman slowly made his way towards the crack in the wall. Lightning flashed in the window next to it. “Hey, guys? I think I found something.”

Both Logan and Patton’s attentions turned towards Roman to see what he was talking about, upon noticing the crack, their curiosity was peaked as well. They moved to stand next to Roman who was now sizing up the crack. “Do either of you think that this may be what we are looking for?”

Logan took a step forward and reached up to touch the fracture and once his hand was within a few inches of it, his hand disappeared into a small black and blue fracture. “If that is any indication, I believe we have found our rift.”

Logan pulled his hand back and looked at the other two. Roman stood with a grin on his face. “Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s take this rift for a spin and see if it leads up to where we want to go.”

The three nodded and with one last look at the Archives, they all walked through the rift. They held their breaths and walked through the rift and felt that familiar  _ ~whoosh~ _ . One second they were standing in the Archives and in the next they were now standing in the Darkchives. It looked just as they had left it two weeks ago.

Each felt themselves shiver. They each looked to each other and then down to their wrists where they noticed the purple marking that Virgil placed on their wrist, once again, shining brightly. “We did it. We made it back to the Darkchives.”

They each were looking around the room when suddenly Patton exclaimed “Woah, Roman! Your sword is back.” 

Roman’s hand moved to his side and relaxed on the hilt of the sword. Looking down in surprise, he slowly removed the sword from its sheath and held it in front of him, basking in the warm, golden glow. Roman felt a smile make its way onto his face. His attention moved from the sword in his hand to the two other sides across from him. He looked from Logan to Patton, and then down to Patton’s wrists, “Patton! So are your bracelets!”

Patton had only just then noticed the familiar weight on his wrists. Holding both his wrists up in front of him, the sleeves of Virgil’s hoodie fell and he turned them around so he could get a good look at them. The silver bracelets still shone with their pale blue light. “They disappeared last time when we left the Darkscape. How does that make any sense?”

“They must have some connection to the Darkscape that prevents them from traveling through the two mindsets.” Logan observed, looking between the two legend items.

“Much like our powers?” Patton questioned.

“Precisely.” Logan affirmed

“Logan, your book didn’t reappear.” Patton stated as he pointed at Logan.

“No, but his arm is glowing! Look, some of the words that he has written on his arm are glowing blue.” Roman exclaimed while gesturing towards his arm.

Logan looked down at his arms, it was true. Logan had written many words along his arm, and some of them were glowing. “This might be happening due to the absence of the book in my possession.” Logan stated while turning over his arms. “Remember, unlike your items, the book returned with us to the Mindscape, it's sitting on my desk right now.”

“Is that how your powers are supposed to work?”

Logan tested a little bit of his abilities, creating small sections of walls and shards of ice. “Guess so.”

“Well, it makes using your powers a little easier, huh?” Patton smiled, Logan nodded.

“Well now that we know about this, what do we do?” Roman questioned.

“Unfortunately I think Virgil needs to wait one more night.” Logan stated this, surprising the other two. “I don’t like the idea as much as you but we are in no shape to go and traverse the manor. We need to get some sleep and prepare ourselves and come back tomorrow.” 

Roman stared at him dumbfounded, “You want us to wait? You really think any of us are gonna get some sleep tonight?”

“We are gonna have to try.”

The three didn’t like the idea of waiting any longer, but they knew Logan was right. Solemnly, the three sides turned around and headed back into the rift, leading them back into the Archives. They each took one last look before heading back through the Archives to get to the portal that would take them into the Mind Palace.

Once they had returned, they each separated (temporarily) in order to prepare themselves for the following day. They got themselves as prepared as they could and then went to bed for the night.

The next morning the three sides woke up and got ready to go. Patton was the first to be finished and he headed downstairs to make breakfast for them. Logan was the next down with Roman following shortly. They sat down for breakfast and ate their breakfast in silence, each distracted with the events that were about to occur. Before they headed out, Patton took off Virgil’s hoodie and placed it gently on the couch.

After they were finished they cleaned up and made their way towards the Archives. They stood in front of the rift and looked at each other. “Everyone has everything they need?” Patton asked, earning a nod from both Logan and Roman. It helped a lot that they now knew that their ‘legend items’ returned to them once they re-entered the Darkchives (Logan did bring the book with him as well as made sure to place a blue pen in his pocket). 

Turning back towards the rift, they were all ready. 

“Let’s get on with this.”

__________

They walked through the entrance and entered into the Darkchives. Roman walked a couple steps from the others and turned around to face them again. “So… What do we do from here?”

“We go and find Virgil and the others. Right?” Patton asked

“That should be the next step we take, but…” Logan started, earning curious looks from the others. “There’s something I want to check out before we head out into the manor.” Logan stated this as he started walking towards the stairs to the second floor of the Darkchives. 

Roman raised an eyebrow in question (though Logan couldn’t see it), “What exactly are you checking on?”

Patton and Roman had to keep a fast pace as they followed Logan. After a couple twists and turns they ended up in a nook filled with filing cabinets. Logan walked forward and started opening up different drawers and looking through their contents. 

“Well, Roman, the Archives in the Mindscape holds information about all beings that exist within the two mindsets. It contains information about sides, purpose, and if available, names. I figured that if the Archives hold information important to that mindset, the Darkchives will hold information important to this mindset.”

“And...What information are you looking for, exactly?” Patton asked, now standing next to him peering over his shoulder. Roman moved across from the two and looked over the different file names.

“Side information.” Logan stated as if it were obvious. “I want to see if there are files that contain information for the sides that exist within the Darkscape as well as possible information on what kinds of powers or abilities they might possess.”

“I’m guessing you’re more specifically looking for information regarding Remus and Deceit’s powers? So when we find them we will be more prepared when we have to fight against them, right?” Roman asked.

Logan and Patton could see the little bit of hope in his eyes. They knew that he was looking for Logan to tell him that he was also looking for a way to save the two of them (particularly Remus). 

Logan nodded his head, “If we know what we are up against, we can make a better battle strategy for next time so, hopefully, we can get them back to the Mindscape as well.”

After a few more minutes of searching, Logan finally seemed to find the drawer he was looking for. He skimmed a couple files before pulling out two of them. Holding them up for the others to see, they could read Deceit and Remus’ names written at the top. “Found them.” Logan said with a pleased smile on his face.

Patton grabbed onto his arm, “Well what are you waiting for? What do their files say?”

With an encouraging look from both of them, Logan opened up their files and read the contents within them.

__________

**_Janus/Deceit_** **_(Traitor-Eliminate on Sight)_**

_ Shapeshifting (Others): Can shift form into other beings _

_ Energy Shield Construction: Can create a shield for self/others using energy from the surrounding area. _

_ Beast Creation: Can create snakes, shapes and types may vary, at will to help in combat _

_ Alys _ _ í _ _ dakinesis: Can create and manipulate chains _

_ Sealing: The ability to seal objects/beings into other objects/beings and release as needed _

_ __ _

** _Remus/Intrusive Thoughts/Dark Creativity (Traitor- Eliminate on Sight)_ **

_ Acidokinesis (Acid): Can create and manipulate acid _

_ Tentacle Extension: Can create tentacle extensions from back to help aid in combat _

_ Weapon Creation: The ability to create any weapon (preference mace) _

_ Sealing: The ability to seal objects/beings into other objects/beings and release as needed _

_ __________ _

“Well, that explains their powers, but not about why they attacked us. Their files say ‘eliminate on sight’ yet they are wandering through the manor with no care.” Roman stated as Logan shut Remus’ file, placing it on top of Deceit’s file.

Patton looked worriedly at Logan, “Roman’s right. Could there be something their files aren’t telling us.”

“I'm not sure. Something is definitely off about this whole situation and I don’t think Remus and Deceit have anything to do with it.” Logan frowned as he replaced the two files into the drawer. He was about to shut the drawer when a couple names on a few other files caught his attention. Pulling them out he got a closer look and discovered he was right about what they were, “It looks like we have files here in the Darkscape as well.”

Roman and Patton looked at him in surprise. Patton gave Logan a look filled with curiosity while Roman had a wide grin on his face, “What do our files say about us?”

Logan rolled his eyes at Roman’s excitement, but went on to reading out their files anyways.

_ __________ _

** _Roman/Creativity (Light Side- Eliminate on Sight) _ **

_ Pyrokinesis(Fire): Can create, manipulate, and breathe fire _

_ Shapeshifting (Dragon): Can change form into a dragon as well as shift certain aspects of oneself to have dragon characteristics _

_ Weapon Creation: The ability to create any weapon (preference sword/katana) _

_ __ _

** _Patton/Morality (Light Side- Eliminate on Sight)_ **

_ Lumokinesis(Light): Can create and manipulate light for offensive and defensive purposes _

_ Healing: Using light energy, can focus on injuries to help speed up the natural healing process  _

_ Energy Shield Construction: Can create a shield for self/others using light energy _

_ Empath: Can read and manipulate emotions of others. _

_ __ _

** _Logan/Logic: (Light Side- Eliminate on Sight)_ **

_ Cryokinesis (Ice): Can create and manipulate ice for offensive and defensive purposes _

_ Telekinesis: Can move objects using the mind _

_ Teleportation: Can transport from one location to another. Short distances _

_ Word Manifestation: Can manifest objects/effects using the spoken word. Can enhance own abilities as well as abilities of others _

_ __________ _

“Well those are our files, should we read Virgil’s file?” Logan questioned, holding the remaining file up into the air.

Patton looked at the file in Logan’s hand. “I mean, I guess I can understand why you are asking.”

Roman nodded as well, “He was pretty adamant not telling us about the powers he possesses, but do we really have a choice?”

Logan shook his head, “He will probably be upset with us when he finds out, but the information contained in his file may help us out at a later time.”

The other two looked at Logan and the three came to a silent agreement. Logan slowly lowered Virgil’s file, opened it up, and read through it.

_ __________ _

**Virgil/Anxiety (Traitor- Eliminate on Sight)**

_ Electrokinesis (Electricity): Can create and manipulate electricity _

_ Umbrakinesis (Dark): Can manipulate darkness/shadows _

_ Hallicukinesis: Can create illusions to affect others perceptions of reality _

_ Sealing: The ability to seal objects/beings into other objects/beings and release as needed _

_ Beast Creation: Can create creatures/monsters from darkness/shadows. Sizes, shapes, and hostility may vary (Summoned based off user’s emotions) _

_ __________ _

The three all stood in stunned silence.

“Logan… did you just say that one of Virgil’s abilities is to summon dark creatures?” Roman stuttered out. A look of disbelief on his face.

Logan placed the file down for both Roman and Patton to look at, Logan was trying to comprehend what he had just read himself.

“Does that mean that all those dark creatures we faced were summoned by... Virgil?” Patton asked, sadness echoing in his voice.

“Virgil wouldn’t do that. I don’t believe it!” Roman exclaimed angrily.

“I don’t think that he would do that, even if he did, on purpose.” Logan stated, eyebrows furrowed.

“What do you mean by that, Logan.” Patton asked.

“If you look at the description of his abilities, it says that his ‘beast creation’ is affected by his emotions. As I’m sure we all remember, the Darkscape greatly enhanced Virgil’s anxiety and negative emotions. The creatures were probably summoned unconsciously and attacked with heightened hostility due to the increased fear that Virgil was feeling as we made our way through the Darkscape.” Logan said.

“Even if that was the case. Wouldn’t he have known that?” Roman asked confused

“Not necessarily.” Logan started, “We don’t know how Virgil reacted to this power, if at all, when he was a resident of the Darkscape. Dissociative Amnesia occurs when someone blocks certain information, that’s usually associated with stressful or traumatic events, leaving them unable to remember important personal information.”

“So you’re saying, that power might have affected him so badly that he made himself forget that he was able to use it.” Roman asked.

Logan nodded sadly, “That is exactly what I’m saying.”

The three sides took a minute to digest all the information that they had just heard. They were all worried about what they had learned. Logan solemnly closed Virgil’s file and replaced it back into the filing cabinet, gently shutting it. They had found the information that he was looking for, but at what cost. He shook his head.

Looking at Roman and Patton, he steeled his face, they couldn’t let this new information stop them from completing the job they came to do. By the looks that the other two were giving him, they were thinking the same thing as well. “ Nothing we have learned changes what we think or how we feel about Virgil (or the others).”

“We came here to get him back and that’s exactly what we are going to do.” Roman followed up, determination etched on his face.

Patton smiled “Let’s go save Virgil, Remus, and Deceit.”


	23. Twisted Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone,  
Long time no see...   
First thing, I'm sorry for my disappearance. It was never my intention to go away for so long but things got really bad for a while. I stopped taking care of myself and my motivation went out the window. It's slowly starting to get better, but I honestly can't say when things will get to be normal enough where I'll be consistent again with my uploads.
> 
> But I still plan on finishing this story! I'm not giving up on this story or my other story. I love them too much to be one of those authors who just abandons their stories. I at least want to get Part 2 done by this story's one year anniversary in October. Depending on how I feel at that point will decide if I continue on with the Part 3 I've started drafting or if Part 2 will be the end. Would anyone actually want to see a Part 3?
> 
> Thank you so much to all those who continue to wait patiently for the story to update! You guys are amazing and one of the few reasons I'm not giving up on them any time soon. Thanks to all those who sent wonderful and supportive comments! I still read through them when I'm having a hard day and need a little booster.
> 
> I hope you all enjoy and I will see you all in my next update!  
\- Alicemarie

_ When Virgil opened his eyes, he was once again standing in the Darkscape Manor hallways. He felt himself shiver as the familiar feeling of the nightmare started to overwhelm him. He had been through this horrible nightmare numerous times before, this was just the first time he felt himself conscious of his thoughts and movements as he stood there. _

_ Virgil hated it but he felt that he needed to eventually start this nightmare in order to get it over with. Letting his feet lead the way (like many times before), Virgil started making his way through the Darkscape Manor.  _

_ As he was walking through, he noticed that the environment around him looked and felt different. The last time he had had this dream, a dark, black substance dripped from the walls. Now the substance was dry and caked, it looked like it hadn’t dripped in years. There was no wind whistling through the endless and twisting hallways, making everything quiet and still. _

_ Virgil allowed his feet to continue leading the way, he knew where he was going at this point, so he allowed his feet to move and his mind to wander. As he was walking he was caught off guard by the paintings that lined the hallway. The last time, the paintings were of dreary landscapes or scenes of torture. These new paintings held various moments from battles he and the others had faced.  _

_ Eventually, he came across the first painting. _

_ Virgil felt his heart sink as he stared up at the face of the pale, blue guardian, Patton. His face was as clear as day, hood down, and arms reached out towards him. His face was smiling but his eyes held a loneliness that Virgil felt in his core. Virgil wanted to stay but he knew that staying there would do him no good. He allowed himself to turn and walk away. _

_ After a short while, Virgil came upon the next painting, Logan’s painting. He too was standing in the same pose as the guardian from last time, with his hood down. The blue words swirled around him and Virgil could vaguely make out some of the words. He looked at Logan’s face and mentally noted the confusion and uncertainty written on it. Once again, his feet led him away. _

_ Finally, after a short time, Virgil came across Roman’s painting. The red guardian stood tall, sword glittering in his hand. Roman’s face held a deep sadness that made Virgil’s heart ache. The dragon behind him was curled into itself, its emotions mirroring Roman’s.  _

_ Virgil heard a rumble come from behind him, he quickly turned around. When Virgil turned around, he found himself facing the ruined hallway from the battle with Deceit and Remus. Acid dripped from the ceiling and wooden beams and furniture lay broken throughout. This dream had taken a turn from it’s usual path. _

_ Virgil started walking through rubble, flinching away from the damage done. Among the destruction, Virgil could see the remains of the broken yellow and green portraits scattered about. Finally, Virgil made it through the mess and noticed that he ended up at the end of the hallway… A dead end. _

_ ‘How is there a dead end? The manor doesn’t have any dead ends…” _

_ Virgil stared in confusion around himself and slowly started to notice the hallway shift. The lines and shapes started to blur and slowly the dead end became the black marble room from the end of the nightmare. _

_ A growl resounded from behind him and Virgil whipped around just in time to watch as the dark creatures started to form from the shadows surrounding him. Virgil jumped back as he watched the creatures form, but a sinking feeling appeared as he watched them materialized deformed. _

_ Virgil stared in horror. The creatures formed in dripping, black, sludgy forms. They screeched out to him as they struggled to move or hold themselves up. Their beings were distorted and the different beings held different parts and pieces that didn’t exist upon their original forms. _

_ Virgil took a step back and heard a large cracking sound. Virgil looked down and saw that the floor was breaking below him. Before he could even react, it broke and sent him plummeting into complete blackness. Virgil couldn’t tell anything more than he was falling until he felt his body smack down onto a hard surface. _

_ Dizziness and nausea overwhelmed Virgil as he tried to give himself a chance to recover from the fall. He curled on the ground on his knees, head resting on his forearms, as he tried to settle his breathing. His body was shaking so hard, which did nothing to help with the pain he was feeling. _

_ ‘This is not how the nightmare went. This is a worse version of both nightmares combined.’ _

_ Virgil knew eventually he would have to look up to figure out where he was. He had a feeling that he knew where he was though. Lifting his head to verify Virgil was shocked to find, yet another, change to the nightmare. Virgil found himself sitting in the middle of a dark room. His vision was swimming as he looked around himself. _

_ All Virgil could see was a black, marble room. The walls blended together so you couldn’t tell where the floor, walls, and ceiling were. The dim, light illuminating only a small part of the room. The emptiness of the room was suffocating. All feeling in the room was sucked out, reminding Virgil greatly of the void from the first nightmare.  _

_ Virgil looked down and noticed that on the cracked floor of the room was a faint outline of a seven, pointed star (he, himself, landing on one of the points). Old markings were carved into the floor, extending from each of the points towards the center of the star. At the center of the star, was a large cage. A broken cage.  _

_ Virgil sucked in his breath as he looked at the scene before him. The cage looked like something had broken out from the inside with incredible force. Scraps of metal lay across the floor mixed with a dark sludge similar to the sludge absent from the manor. Virgil unsteadily pushed himself off the ground so he could stand. He spun around to see if there was an exit… There wasn’t. _

_ Slowly, Virgil started to notice a slight rumble coming from the ground. Virgil looked towards the ground and followed the cracks to the center of the star. He watched as black sludge started to ooze out from the ground. It started slowly and then sped up, coming out from the ground and moving towards the center. _

_ The sludge moved together and started to form into a large, human shaped, creature. The sludge oozed down its form in waves, an endless being of ick. When it first formed, the creature was facing away from him but after it was fully together, it turned towards him. It had no face. A low rumble came from its direction as it turned its head at Virgil in confusion. The rumble shifted into a screech as it noticed another presence within the room. _

_ Virgil stared at the creature. A voice in his head screaming ‘ _ Run! Run! RUN!’  _ but his feet wouldn't move. Not like he had anywhere to go. _

_ Both Virgil and the creature stared at each other for a few moments, neither of them doing anything. Virgil didn’t know what to do, he was standing face-to-face with what his subconscious told him was the form of Corruption, but it wasn’t anything like what Virgil expected. He expected to see a side, much like himself, with characteristics defining itself as who it was. This thing had nothing. _

_ Virgil’s heart was pounding in his ears as he started to hyperventilate. He was backed up against a wall, his body trembling. He was trapped. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide… No one to save him.  _

_ He was alone. _

_ He did this to himself.  _

_ He pushed the others away when he needed them most. _

_ It was to protect them. Right? _

_ Right? _

_ Virgil was snapped out of his panicked thoughts as another large rumble resounded through the room, causing it to shake. Rubble fell from the ceiling and Corruption shrieked out. Virgil watched in horror as Corruption’s sludgy form started to grow as it raised its arms to howl in protest to the disturbance. Corruption’s anger turned from the falling rubble to Virgil, rather quickly.  _

_ Virgil’s eyes widened as he saw that Corruptions form shifted to one showing that it was ready to attack. Its form hunched over as the sludge started to pool on the ground. Large, black spikes grew from its form as claws grew out from its ‘hands’, breaking into the already cracked ground below. Large jagged fangs grew from the things ‘mouth’ as Corruption shrieked again and with one surprisingly powerful push, it lunged towards Virgil with terrifying speed.  _

_ All Virgil could do was watch as Corruption’s claws headed straight for his throat. _

_ __________ _

Virgil woke up gasping for air as he frantically looked around the room he was in. His body was shaking violently as he sat trying to figure out where he was and where Corruption had disappeared to. The room Virgil sat in was dimly lit and mostly empty, he was curled up tightly in the corner behind a few of the pieces of furniture that existed within it. Virgil’s thoughts were fuzzy as he tried to remember how he got here and when he had passed out, nothing came to mind.

Virgil sat on the ground for quite a while, trying to calm himself and wrap his mind around the fact that he wasn’t in any immediate danger. He shakily got to his feet after a while and slowly made his way towards the door at the opposite end of the room. Opening the door, Virgil slowly peeked his head out into the hallway to check both ways. Seeing there was nothing, Virgil headed out into the hallway to continue on his way. Wherever he was going.

He had been walking through the hallways for a while, using the wall for support as his body felt heavy and weak. Virgil had only stopped to take a breath when the manor around him violently rumbled. He whipped around to look at the hallway behind him as a loud howl echoed from behind him. His eyes widened and his flight instincts kicked in and he turned around and quickly ran down the hall in the opposite direction from the noise. The only thought running through his head being…

_ What was that?! _


End file.
